During last Sunday’s Angelus, Pope Francis invited the faithful to ask themselves daily: ‘What do I bring to Jesus today?’
Newsdesk (26/07/2021 17:00, Gaudium Press) Last Sunday, July 25, World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, Pope Francis appeared at the window of the papal flat for the traditional recitation of the Marian prayer of the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square.
Before the prayer, the Pontiff reflected on the Gospel of the day, which tells the well-known episode of when Our Lord Jesus Christ multiplied loaves and fishes to feed about five thousand people who came to hear Him.
Five loaves and two fish: enough for Jesus
The Holy Father highlights the fact that “Jesus does not create the loaves and fishes out of nothing, but acts on what the disciples bring him. One of them says that there was a young man with five loaves and two fish. “It is little, it is not nothing, but it is enough for Jesus,” he assures.
Next, the Pontiff asked us to put ourselves in the place of that young man. “The disciples ask him to share all he has to eat. It seems a foolish proposal, in fact, unjust. Why deprive a person, especially a young man, of what he has brought from home and has the right to keep for himself? Why take away from a person what is not enough to feed everyone?” he reflects.
What do I bring to Jesus today?
“Humanly, it is illogical. But not for God. On the contrary, thanks to this small free and therefore heroic gift, Jesus can feed everyone. This is a great teaching for us. He tells us that the Lord can do much with the little we put at his disposal,” Francis stressed.
The Pope invited the faithful to ask themselves daily: ‘What do I bring to Jesus today?’ “He can do much with a prayer of ours, with a gesture of charity towards others, even with our misery handed over to his mercy. God loves to act like this: he does great things from small and gratuitous things,” he stressed.
The real miracle is not multiplication
Pope Francis also recalled that all the great protagonists of the Bible show this logic of smallness and of gift: “The logic of gift is very different from ours. We seek to accumulate and increase what we have. Instead, Jesus asks us to give, to decrease. We love to add, we like to add. Jesus likes to subtract, to take something away to give to others. We want to multiply for ourselves. Jesus appreciates when we share with others.” he teaches.
“It is curious that in the accounts of the multiplication of the loaves present in the Gospels, the verb ‘multiply’ never appears. On the contrary, the verbs used are of the opposite sign: ‘to break’, ‘to give’, ‘to distribute’. The true miracle, says Jesus, is not the multiplication that produces glory and power, but the division, the sharing, that increases love and allows God to work wonders. Let us share more: let us experience this way that Jesus teaches us,” the Pontiff affirmed.
The multiplication of goods does not solve problems without a fair share
Finally, the Pope stresses that “even today, the multiplication of goods does not solve problems without a just sharing”. Recalling the nearly seven thousand children under the age of five who die from malnutrition because they do not have what is necessary to live, Pope Francis assures us that Jesus gives us a similar invitation.
“Courage, donate the little you have, your talents and your goods, put them at the disposal of Jesus and your brothers and sisters. Do not be afraid, nothing will be lost, because if you share, God multiplies. Cast out the false modesty of feeling inadequate, trust. Believe in love, in the power of service, in the strength of generosity”, he concluded. (EPC)