(2 Kings 4:42-44; Eph 4:1-6; John 6:1-15)

One of the fascinating things I’ve learned about scripture is the layers of meanings and stories within stories that relate so clearly to our lives today - There are no summer re-runs when we read the bible.

Jesus is at the center of today’s gospel, but the minor characters are worth thinking about. Compare Phillip with Andrew and the boy who brought the loaves and fish.

The place where the crowd had gathered was near Phillip’s home town. He knew the area and the resources. He was the expert. Jesus asks his advice. He basically says "This is crazy! There’s no way to feed all these people."

Phillip is the expert, he sees the limitations.

Andrew sees it differently. He sees an opportunity. "This boy has five loaves and two fish" Then he asks a question that expresses his doubt - "But what are they among so many?"

Phillip sees the limitations and makes a statement. "There’s nothing WE can do."

Andrew sees an opportunity along with serious doubts and he brings them both to Jesus.

When Phillip pointed out they could never buy enough bread, Jesus could have multiplied the money. As far as that goes, he could have provided rotisserie chicken, potato salad and cole slaw for everyone right there on the spot.

But that would have changed the whole point about what we can learn from this.

Each one of us has special gifts and opportunities. We can choose Phillip’s point of view, "There’s too much to be done, there’s no way I can make a difference."

Or we can look at it from Andrew’s perspective: " There’s something here, it doesn’t seem like much but I can bring it to Jesus."

That’s what the boy did. Imagine yourself in a crowd of 5000 people, everybody’s hungry and you’re the only one who brought lunch. What do you do?

I’d be really tempted to hide what I had - for a couple reasons:

1) its not very much and 2) everybody wants some.

It’s tempting to hide our gifts. From Phillip’s point of view, they’re not enough to make a difference anyway. But if the boy had done this, we would have missed out on a tremendous miracle.

Who knows what we’re missing when we hide or don’t recognize our gifts. The boy didn’t know what he had was worthwhile until he brought it to Jesus.

And what did Jesus do? He didn’t use hocus-Pocos or a magic wand like Harry Potter. He gave thanks.

The Greek word that John used in this gospel for "to give thanks" is Eucharisto. - Eucharist The disciples gathered up the fragments after everybody had eaten. The verb that he used for "gathering up" is the same Greek word that has been used to describe our gathering rite at the beginning of Mass. The word used in this gospel for "fragments" is the same word used by early Christians for "host."

This story had a profound influence on the Mass we celebrate today. We have a choice in how we approach this celebration and what we take home from it. If we look at it the way Phillip did, there’s just not enough of us to make much of a difference - we might as well all just go home afterwards and go on with our lives.

Andrew and the boy would look at it differently. We can bring our little gifts and

big doubts to Jesus. We can give thanks for what we have, offer our gifts in humility and gentleness, and let them be transformed into the Body of Christ.

In the second reading, St. Paul begs us to be like Andrew and the boy - to be patient, to bear with one another in love and to be part of one body, one Spirit.

The miracle of the loaves and fishes from 2000 years ago can become today’s miracle of men and women and sons and daughters each multiplying our little gifts by bringing them to Jesus and fully participating in the Mystical Body of Christ.

It starts with a choice. We can choose to be skeptical and safe like Phillip. Or like Andrew and the boy, we can choose to bring our gifts and our doubts to Jesus. We can choose to go home hungry or we can choose to be part of a miracle.