Did you ever go fishing? particularly on a lake or on a body of water where there was little obvious movement of the water? where you had to sit quietly, awaiting a knock-at-your-door like nibble from the end of your fishing line?
The "how? of the feeding of 5000 men is a mystery. Forget trying to discover a solution: it is mystery. Think for a few moments on the "why?" Why did Jesus not send the people back to their villages, to their homes to ease their hunger? Not because they might have been hungry but, as St. Mark recorded the event, because "his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd" (6:34).
How many of us ever consider how often we encounter others who seem to be shepherdless, going through life without a rudder? Or, perhaps, even in your own life this might be a reality whether or not you know it.
Jesus was moved with pity and concern for the large crowd because he loved them perhaps with a love they didn't know or experience. If we were fully aware of God's love for us . . . imagine how our lives could or world be so different!
Perhaps the real mystery in this particular event in Jesus' life is why we find it so challenging to live each day in an awareness that our Creator God, our redeeming God and our enlivening God love us. How different our lives could and would be if we took just a little time each day to drop our fishing line into the waters of God's love for us! How rewarding our time with God would be if we simply let God be God, if we let our God tell us the many ways he loves us.
