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TRINITY

Matthew 14.20  Everyone ate and had enough.

I remember going to a Catholic Rock Mass in the early 80s in my home town of Adelaide in South Australia and seeing the drama of the feeding of the crowd acted out in a way that has stayed with me ever since.

The setting in today's Gospel reading (Matthew 14.13) is a group of people gathered around and listening to Jesus speak. They were so moved by what he had to say that no one wanted to leave. They began to get a bit hungry and saw Jesus attempting to feed them all with just a few bits and pieces of food.

Inspired both by his words and by his generosity they put what little food they had into the bowl as it went past and took out just a little less than they had put in.

The message is simple. We can waste a lot of time trying to affirm the extraordinary nature of this miracle story. The real answer is much more down-to-earth. The miracle was not the production of food out of nothing. Rather, it was that the crowd was so moved by what they were part of that they began to exercise a spirit of generosity as well.

Some might say this lessens the miracle. I think the miracle is enhanced. The spirit of the Incarnation is a direct challenge for us to see that the everyday activities of our times are miraculous. The things that we share from within this creation are profound and beautiful.

I remember reading an introduction to a book of Teilhard de Chardin's meditations, written by someone who as a child had met Teilhard by chance in New York's Central Park.

She used to cross Central Park to get to school. She recalled meeting this strange but wonderful man who would walk and talk with her for a small part of her journey to school. She remembered being fascinated by the way they would talk about things and that how, without warning, he would fall to the floor because he had seen a caterpillar or worm or some other creature. Then the next few minutes he would share his wonder at these beautiful and complex pieces of creation. She was moved by his love of the ordinary and by his passion for creation.

The crowd which gathered to hear Jesus was likewise so moved by what they were hearing and seeing that they chose to participate in the generous act of sharing food. This was, and still is, a miracle.

It is far more powerful to realise that I can change those around me through my actions or words than by using some mysterious power that is outside my normal world.

The doctrine of the Incarnation says that this world is good, that my life and the lives of every bit of creation around me are precious and wonderful. This is a mammoth change from the neo-Platonism that saturates so much of our biblical literature.

Thank God for the miracle of the human spirit and its ability to change and to build a better world.

This for me is the stuff of real miracles.

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