On the day that Jesus fed the five thousand, He took up the five loaves of bread and two fishes, gave thanks, and broke them into pieces to be distributed to the whole multitude. “And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.” (Matthew 14:16-21). This miracle seems a little different from many of Christ's other miracles. Giving sight to the blind, cleansing lepers, raising the dead - all of these are not things that others could do for themselves. But even if it took them a little longer than usual, most of the five thousand there that day would most likely have been able to track down food all on their own. But if we look specifically at the fact that Christ blessed and broke bread to be passed to all of these people and remember that shortly thereafter Christ would bless and break bread again at the very first Sacrament, we begin to see that this miracle was as much or more about teaching about the Atonement as it was filling hungry bellies. A common reason that we may feel hesitant to ask the Lord either for help or for forgiveness is that we're asking too much of Him. We might feel greedy demanding a piece of Christ when there are so many others that seem to need Him much more than we do. The idea of Christ tearing Himself apart and giving away all of those pieces to others and keeping nothing for Himself could move us to feel that we are not worth the Sacrifice and Christ ought to be allowed to keep at least a little bit for Himself. But that's not how it works. Christ, the Bread of Life, will not stop breaking Himself into a million pieces until every single last one of us has had a chance to take our own piece of Him and are filled with His life and love. We should not feel guilty that Christ gives all of Himself away to save us and holds nothing back, because what happened at the end of the miracle? Christ started off with five loaves and ended up with twelve baskets of broken bread. Christ is showing us that selfless service is not exactly the sacrifice that we think it is. Yes we are breaking ourselves into pieces and giving out those pieces to help others, but at the end of the day, all are filled and we end up with more in our baskets than we started out with. Rather than locking away our bread until it has grown so hard and stale that not even we can eat or enjoy it, we can follow the example of Jesus Christ and break up our bread into pieces and pass them out to all who are hungry or in need and all will be filled and we ourselves most of all.
