One of the issues I struggle with as a parent is the competitiveness of my children. They compete over everything --- who got the biggest slice of pizza, who gets to ride in the front seat, who gets more gifts at Christmas, etc. It is clear that each one sees his brother's gain as a personal loss.
As a parent trying to teach them to be loving and generous, it is frustrating and discouraging. They have so much. Yet the fear of loss or want is always there.
We live in a culture that is obsessed with supply. We fear that there is not enough food, energy, money, or jobs available to sustain us. So we cling to what we have.
Personally, I spend too many of my waking hours working to ensure that my family is taken care of. In some ways, I live with the same fear that my sons do. Perhaps I passed it on to them. There just doesn't seem to be enough for everybody. So I try and secure as much as I can.
In today's Gospel reading, thousands of seekers follow Jesus into the hills to hear him teach. When it comes time for a meal, there seems to be no way to feed them all. A boy offers to donate a few loaves and fishes, and the disciples scoff, "What good are these for so many?"
Jesus takes the boy's loaves and fishes and transforms them into a meal for five thousand people. The message is clear. With God there is always enough. If we offer what little we can, we will not only see our own needs met, but we will see more.
It is an attractive thought --- that we don't need to be consumed with taking care of ourselves and can trust God to meet our needs. God is concerned about more than mere hunger, and so are we.
Ultimately, the resource we crave the most is love, and it's easy to think that there is not enough love for everyone either. Our spouses, children, parents and friends are, after all, finite people with multiple commitments. They cannot promise to meet all of our needs for attention and affection. And we all face our own finite resources, and often feel that we cannot meet the needs of the many people in our lives. So we are tempted to cling to the loaves and fishes we have, reluctant to share for fear of loss or want.
Today's Gospel tells us that we must share what we have in order to experience the unbridled generosity of God. It is not an easy thing to do. In a world that is straining against limited supplies of all things, including love, it can be hard to believe that the way to access the unlimited power of God is to share what we have. We must learn that our brother's gain is not our loss.
Generosity, not self protection, is the key to the experience of God's plenty. There is enough for everyone if we are willing to share what we have. Bill Peatman writes from Napa. |