The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
I love watching the communion line. I’ll admit that in my younger, less spiritually mature days I just wanted to see what everyone was wearing that day. But now, it’s for an entirely different reason: every time I watch the communion line, I see our Gospel today reenacted.
This Sunday, we hear about one of Jesus’ most memorable miracles: the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. After a day spent preaching and healing the sick, the disciples are tired and ready to wrap things up. As evening approaches, they ask Jesus to dismiss the crowd because, even though they are hungry and in a deserted place, these people just won’t leave! They persist in bringing their need to Christ.
As the mother of four young children, this part of the story is very relatable. I too have a small crowd following me, relentlessly asking for more. Like the apostles, I often feel like a limit has been reached: Mom is done, kids, time to get your own food and lodgings! But what a relief that Jesus is not bound by my limitations. When He sees the disciples unable to feed the crowd themselves, He takes the little bit given to Him—five loaves and two fish—and makes it enough to feed them all. With this miracle, He tells his followers, “Don’t worry. I ask you to keep giving beyond your power because I myself will provide the means.”
Each Sunday, we are that same persistent crowd. We come to Him after a long week and all we have are our two empty hands, stretched out to the priest as we move to the front of the communion line. Jesus is not intimidated by our neediness. He does not send us away. He feeds us. I kneel in my pew watching the slow procession and I see Him do what I can’t: pour Himself out without limit and without end. Just as He did to the apostles, He asks me to spend another week giving all that I have and then some. And I feel comforted, because I know that with this sacred meal He has provided the means.
Paula Golbabai is a wife, mother, CPA, and reading enthusiast living with her family and a flock of chickens in College Station, Texas. She loves morning prayer time with a cup of coffee and watching the adventure of her life unfold as she keeps saying “yes” to God.