Our reflections during this liturgical season have gotten to a certain realization, and it is this: The joy of the Gospel is recognizing Christ’s presence. It was for Mary and Elisabeth at the Visitation as we have seen this liturgical season. It was for Simeon and Anna at the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. It was for S. John Baptist and other disciples at the beginning of S. John’s Gospel account. It was for the disciples upon Our Lord’s Resurrection. It was for the apostles in the Upper Room after the Ascension and at Pentecost. It was for the three thousand on Pentecost who were baptized. It has been for Christians ever since. The joy of the Gospel is recognizing Christ’s presence.
With this fact in mind, one can notice that a particular detail in Saint Mark’s Gospel account today stands out like an out of tune instrument in a symphony orchestra. It is in the part of Mark’s account in which he writes, “As Jesus went ashore He saw a great throng, and He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. And when it grew late, His disciples came to Him and said, “This is a lonely place.” And that is the important detail: that the disciples thought the place was lonely.
Whether the great throng of five thousand people thought it was a lonely place, we do not know. Mark does not tell us; he only tells us the feeling of the disciples, how they interpreted this moment. Keep in mind that nearly all of the disciples at this point in their relationship with Jesus are not accurate interpreters. Nearly all of the disciples did not at this point understand Who Jesus really is, that He was both truly God and truly Man—nearly all of them, the only exceptions being Blessed Mary, the Mother of Jesus, perhaps a small group of other Holy Women, perhaps Saint John the Evangelist. But that is really it, and it is a small group, maybe half a dozen among seventy. Surely Jesus was to them a remarkable man, an especially holy man; He was to them a kind of miracle-worker, a prophet of God, perhaps the most powerful one ever; He was to them an uniquely charismatic, Spirit-filled preacher and teacher; and they saw in Him a presence unlike they had ever known, or even heard of in Jewish tradition.
But, and this is the key point, they did not at this point understand Who Jesus really is: did not recognize that He is the heavenly Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world, as Saint John the Baptist proclaims in the first chapter of Saint John’s Gospel. Over time, they certainly came to see Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world; they certainly came to see Jesus as the Son of God, the Eternal Word of the Father; they certainly came to see the divinity of Jesus which was previewed for three of them at the Transfiguration. But at this point, most of the Seventy did not have eyes to see and ears to hear. When we see Jesus as merely a man, and not divine, we will not experience the joy of the Gospel. The joy comes in recognizing that this man, Jesus, is our Lord and our God.
For the disciples in S. Mark’s account, their feeling of loneliness is almost comical, because they said this immediately after Jesus spent some time teaching the large throng; after He had compassion on them, which means pouring upon them His mercy through His teaching, His presence, His radiating sense of peace. He multiplied the loaves and the fishes, after all! This is almost comical because how could this place be lonely if God was present and active amongst them? How could anyone feel lonely in the presence of He Whose nature is love? How could anyone feel lonely if they were aware that He through Whom all is made was so close, and so loving in His presence?
Therefore the feeding of the five thousand is not an action by Jesus for the immediate benefit of the five thousand. Rather, it is an action by Jesus to immediately benefit the disciples, to teach them something they would not learn until after Christ’s resurrection: after that, they would remember this moment, the feeding miracle. They would have eyes to see how transformative and miraculous is the presence of Jesus to those with faith and who know how they are fed the heavenly food of angels. And Jesus did this so that, in remembering this moment, their remembering would transform their hearts that they would come to know that they are to bring the very same peace, the very same compassion, the very same loving presence that feeds the world with the Holy Spirit that the world feels poured upon with transforming love as the Church did at Pentecost. As the disciples took up the baskets of broken pieces of bread and fish, they came to realize—not immediately, but after the Cross and after Pentecost—that in picking up the bread they were gathering the presence of Jesus. In other words, they came to realize that no place is ever lonely unless Christ’s identity is forgotten. We must always remember Jesus Christ is both God and man. Christ is present here, how can we not be joyful. Among us, my brothers and sisters, is Christ, the Bridegroom, the King of Creation: the very Savior Who is the Son of God Almighty, Who with Him and the Holy Ghost lives and reigns, ever one God: world without end. Amen.