A stalk of freshly picked rhubarb, dipped in a small, designated bowl of white sugar for each bite, is my childhood memory of summer days spent at my granny\u2019s allotment. Further down memory lane, a slice of bread dampened with water and sprinkled with white sugar was a toddler\u2019s snack; in its fancier version, it was a slice of bread topped with cream and sugar. Only much later did I understand that this was all due to the scarcity of food. As a teenager, I remember queuing for hours to buy foodstuffs. Every early December, a shipment of oranges from Cuba was on the national news, with discussions about whether it would make it to the ports in time for Christmas. Local churches distributed food parcels donated by various aid agencies in the West. The persistent food shortage wasn\u2019t a result of war or a string of catastrophic natural disasters; it was a painful side effect of the apparently superior political and economic system called communism. It all changed dramatically for the better when it collapsed, and the free market took over. Once unshackled, the entrepreneurial spirit led to economic prosperity; food shortages became a thing of the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.\u201d <\/em>The opening line of today\u2019s first reading may look like an invitation to free stuff or an inspiration for wannabe populists seeking easy popularity, in the same way as encapsulated in the ancient Latin phrase: \u201cPanem et circenses\u201d – \u201cBread and circuses\u201d. <\/em>The multiplication of food in today\u2019s gospel seems to strengthen the case for free handouts, when Jesus rejected his disciples\u2019 common-sense argument: \u201cThis is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.\u201d <\/em>Instead, he told them, \u201cThey need not go away; you give them something to eat.\u201d <\/em>Their incredulity was clear in their response: \u201cWe have only five loaves here and two fish.\u201d <\/em>Jesus overcame their opposition, and we know how it ended; the rest is history. The final line of the passage read at Mass suggests a great, spectacular success: \u201cThey all ate and were satisfied. […] And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.\u201d <\/em>The stage was set for any kind of milking the success and basking in the glory.<\/p>\n Except that Jesus \u201cimmediately forced\u201d <\/em>(literal translation from the Greek original) his disciples to take the boat and sail away, \u201cwhile he dismissed the crowds [and] went up on the mountain by himself to pray.\u201d (Matthew 14:22-23)<\/em>. The miracle of the food multiplication is the only one reported in all four gospels, but only St John\u2019s offers an explanation of Jesus\u2019 strange move: \u201cknowing that [the crowds] intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.\u201d (John 6:15)<\/em> Some time later, when some people found Jesus again, he was very direct with them: \u201cyou are looking for me […] because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life.\u201d (John 6:26-27)<\/em> That aligns very neatly with what we heard in today\u2019s first reading: \u201cWhy do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live.\u201d<\/em> The invitation was a metaphor for seeking and finding the meaning and purpose of life, a metaphor used many times in the Bible. It was encapsulated in the phrase used by Moses and then recalled by Jesus: \u201cman does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.\u201d (Deuteronomy 8:3)<\/em><\/p>\n In this context, the story in today\u2019s gospel takes on deeper spiritual meaning. The crowds followed Jesus for reasons unknown to us; the gospel doesn\u2019t say why. He was already known as an extraordinary itinerant preacher, healer and miracle-worker. Certainly, the latter two qualities were strong draws, as it was reported that Jesus \u201chealed<\/em> their<\/em> sick.\u201d<\/em> But there was more to his following, as described by St Luke and St Mark: \u201che<\/em> had<\/em> compassion<\/em> on<\/em> them,<\/em> because<\/em> they<\/em> were<\/em> like<\/em> sheep<\/em> without<\/em> a<\/em> shepherd.<\/em> So<\/em> he<\/em> began<\/em> teaching<\/em> them<\/em> many<\/em> things.\u201d<\/em> (Mark<\/em> 6:34)<\/em> In other words, they were seeking a sense of direction in life, a meaning and purpose. Our world is no different. Despite the abundance of goods and services at our disposal to meet every whim and desire, there\u2019s a palpable sense of emptiness. The more people try to fill it with ever greater consumerism, substance abuse or the pursuit of pleasure, the emptier they feel. The promises offered by various freedoms and ideologies of our age have turned out to be, at best, empty or, at worst, harmful. People around us crave something that would give or restore their sense of direction and purpose in life. As to his disciples, so to us Jesus gives this instruction: \u201cYou<\/em> give<\/em> them<\/em> something.\u201d<\/em> We are not able to solve the world\u2019s problems and afflictions; we have no power to do so. But by sharing with people our experience as Christians, we can offer them what they crave: hope, faith and love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A stalk of freshly picked rhubarb, dipped in a small, designated bowl of white sugar for each bite, is my childhood memory of summer days spent at my granny\u2019s allotment. Further down memory lane, a slice of bread dampened with water and sprinkled with white sugar was a toddler\u2019s snack; in its fancier version, it was a slice of bread topped with cream and sugar. Only much later did I understand that this was all due to the scarcity of food. As a teenager, I remember queuing for hours to buy foodstuffs. Every early December, a shipment of oranges from Cuba was on the national news, with discussions about whether it would make it to the ports in time for Christmas. Local churches distributed food parcels donated by various aid agencies in the West. The persistent food shortage wasn\u2019t a result of war or a string of catastrophic natural disasters; it was a painful side effect of the apparently superior political and economic system called communism. It all changed dramatically for the better when it collapsed, and the free market took over. Once unshackled, the entrepreneurial spirit led to economic prosperity; food shortages became a thing of the past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermon","category-year-a"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/freestocks-photos-people-2943111_1280.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15897,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15896\/revisions\/15897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}