Jesus Feeds Five Thousand
The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. (6:30-32)
The apostles followed my example, doing and teaching. When you separate the actions from words, they lose their meaning. When you speak and there is no practical application, it is abstract and will not touch many. I was doing the works of the Father and saying the words He asked me to say. Learn from me, following the example of the apostles, to both do and teach. Your words need feet, and your actions need a mouth. As you learn to follow me, learn to always more integrate these two in your life.
The apostles were excited by how the Father worked through them, yet they were tired and needed rest. I invited them to take a time of rest, because when tiredness is here it can be more difficult to resist temptation - temptation to forget that you have to take care of your body, temptation to be lured by covetousness or by pride. It does not mean that feeding the body shall become an absolute need, it still needs to be submitted to the Father’s lead.
Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. (6:33-34)
Notice that the people went ahead of us because they recognized the apostles, not because of me. Yet, when I saw how desperate they were, I decided to let the apostles rest and I taught this crowd without a shepherd. Love and compassion motivated me.
In your world, you will often see people seeking meaning and direction. They will rarely seek perfectly, yet don’t despise them. Look at them with the eyes of the Father, and respond to the needs when we invite you to. Many in your world are ready to do many things in order to receive blessings, yet you should not blame them but give what you have. Don’t give as if you were able to feed many, you don’t have this aptitude as I did not have it. What you have is the possibility to come to me and to the Father, and to learn with us what to do when you see a need. Sometimes, we will guide you not to respond, sometimes we will invite you to show compassion through actions or through teachings. Don’t forget, all this is not a matter of rules but rather of a living relationship with us. People often seek perfect rules that don’t exist, while real love will hardly survive when you put it in the prison of narrow rules. The principle in all this is that you have to learn that you are poor in spirit, that your discernment is intimately related to the quality of your relationship with us, with your ability to listen to my voice and to follow our directions. Love is never repetitive, it flows and adapts to each situation, and it is by listening to us that you will learn to remain in this flow.
And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” (6:35-38)
When you face a need, don’t let the need become a master. Always keep listening to us. You cannot have two masters, you cannot serve both God and money, or God and the need of people or your own needs. When the disciples realized that it was getting late, they rightly came to me, to remind me that these people needed to eat. What they did not stress is that they - the apostles - also needed to eat and that they felt guilty to eat in front of all the others. They had enough for them, but not for everyone. They used the need of the others to justify their request to send the people away, for them to hide their desire to eat without the others looking at them.
Don’t deceive yourself, and learn to recognize your real motivation in what you say or do. Sometimes, people do the same as the apostles did, they mention a problem or need in order to hide their real motivation. In the case of the apostles, I connected their need with the need of the people. I asked them what they had to eat. The purpose was both to help them recognize their real motivation and to give them a new perspective. They did not like my question, because it meant that I was not following their advice to send the crowd away.
I wanted to continue to train the apostles. They were led by their need of eating, and justified it by stressing the need of the crowd to eat. I was led by the Father, and by his compassion for each. Miracles are not a matter of power first, but rather a matter of God’s abundant love. When you see a need, don’t try to answer alone, learn to answer with the Father’s direction. In this case, our resources were very limited - five loaves of bread and two fish - but it is by giving these resources to the Father that He could lead us in a wonderful way.
Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men. (6:39-44)
I did not do anything without seeing first the Father show me the way. He led me to offer the little food we had by faith. This is not a technique for miracle, it is an example of following the Father’s lead for His miracle of loving care. I lifted my eyes and our resources toward heaven and let the Father lead us. The Father wanted to use not only my faith, but also the faith of the apostles. That is why I asked them to participate in distributing the food. They needed to have faith in me, and to obey to my directions. Faith and obedience always go hand in hand. Faith is not abstract but practical, it is this attitude of confidence in God that allows Him to guide us. If people are not ready to let the Father guide them, to obey to His direction, it is because they don’t have yet real faith. The apostles believed enough in me to do what I told them to do. They did not understand fully, and they did not need to. What was important was that they trusted me and followed my direction.They saw the miracle of the Father appear through their humble obedient faith.
I did not scold the twelve for hiding their real motivation. I simply led them to realize that they needed to listen to me and to the Father, to offer what they had and to trust in me. They needed to remove the focus from their own desire, and to focus on the Father. In many situations, you will be tempted to focus on a problem or a need, either for you or for others. Yet, you need to first come to us and then bring the problem and need, in order to see as we see, to receive in our fellowship an heavenly perspective. When I say a heavenly perspective, I am not speaking of something abstract but rather a very practical approach - yet this approach will be guided by God’s will and resources and not by yours.
Whatever the challenge you face, don’t let it take more place than God. Come to us with faith, bring to us the need and your limited resources, and we will lead you on the path of life and love. As you receive our direction, you will need to learn to obey with faith. It will take some time for you to discern clearly our will. You will probably make mistakes. Now, don’t forget that to learn to walk by faith you need to accept that sometimes you will fall. No child has ever learned to walk without experiencing some falls. An important way to minimize the falls is for you to learn with others, as the apostles learned together. My Church is the training ground for the children of the Father, it is the place where I train my disciples. Start with humility and learn step by step to follow our direction in the midst of your days. In doing so, you will be amazed at how many the Father will bless through your obedient faith.
Thousands and millions are still waiting for the children of God to take their place and manifest the Father’s love to them and to the whole creation. Take your place and learn to walk by faith. The Father wants to share, through you, His love with many.
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