You are probably overly optimistic. Back in the seventies this was the trope of those eager to take the miracles out of the Gospels. Whether the Pope agrees with this, or uses this rubbish to foster his basic misunderstanding of economics, I will leave up to the reader.
No Matter How Low Your Opinion of the Pope is:
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
I’ve heard this explanation of the miracle of the loaves and fishes before; that the food was always there and Jesus influenced the crowd to share. I was so gratified that when portrayed in The Chosen, there is no doubt that there was only five loaves and two fish and the baskets became filled to overflowing.
Thomas Jefferson also excised any miracles or supernatural events from his “Bible.” Trump shouldn’t be selling Bibles but at least they are not subjectively edited.
“After the miracle of the loaves and fishes, the crowd sought to make Jesus king by force, but He withdrew to a mountain alone to avoid this.”
Shouldn’t we all?
I have no words of wisdom to add. I despise, loathe, abhor, and hold in utter contempt and disdain this kind of liberal progressive re-interpretation of the plain meaning of Sacred Scripture. May Pope Leo XIV be deposed and anathematized.
Frank the hippie Pope needs to be updated.
Actually, I do have something more to add that His Holiness, being a Democrat from Chicago, doesn’t understand.
In 2nd Thessalonians 3:6-15 Saint Paul clearly negates the idea of free handouts by saying that if anyone will not work, neither should he eat. He wrote that after 1st Thessalonians in which he described the coming of the Lord at the Parousia. Some people at the Church in Thessaloniki got lazy, hearing that soon the Lord would come, and thought they would get free handouts from others sharing with them while they waited for the Parousia. Saint Paul trashed that idea. No work, no food: starve!
Then in John 6:22-27, the crowd followed Jesus around the lake after the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Jesus clearly told them that they followed Him because their bellies were full, and they should work for the food that doesn’t perish but lasts for eternal life. Guess what, Folks! The crowd did NOT get another free handout! NO socialism. NO sharing. WORK for the food that doesn’t perish. See verse 27.
So when I hear hippie Bob from Chicago mouthing off this sharing nonsense, I get mad as he11. He should know better, and I think he does, but his Democrat Party ideology outweighs his theological sense. So yes, may God depose and anathematize him! I am sick and tired of this heretical crap.
I have started calling him FBM – Fr. Bob the Modernist. Pacifism, downplaying the supernatural, denial of national character. I remember hearing this sort of the nonsense as a kid in the 80’s. I guess this is the culmination of the Liberal Boomer Experience.
There’s no sugar-coating this. Denial of Christ’s miracles is heresy.
Leo needs to get pushback on this at least as fierce as what Francis faced over his religious indifferentism in Singapore, or John XXII’s denial of the Beatific Vision.
Lord have mercy, people showed more loyalty to Mark Driscoll than I’m seeing for the Holy Father here.
What he actually said, not a cherry picked excerpt:
After flying to the southwestern Cameroonian city of Douala on Friday morning, Pope Leo XIV presided at Mass at the Japoma Stadium, joined by around 600,000 faithful.
In his homily, the Pope reflected on Jesus’ miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes for a great crowd.
Just as in Jesus’ time, he said, people hunger for bread and wonder: “Where is God in the face of people’s hunger?”
Pope Leo said Jesus offered his response to this question by sharing what he and those around him had with all.
“A serious problem was solved by blessing the little food that was present and sharing it with all who were hungry,” he said. “The multiplication of the loaves and the fish happened while sharing: that is the miracle!”
As long as bread is not stolen in strife, hoarded through rationing, or wasted by those who gorged themselves, there is food for everyone, said the Pope.
Besides our material necessity, we also hunger for the bread of life in peace, freedom, and justice, and our every act of solidarity and forgiveness becomes “a morsel of bread for humanity in need of care,” he added.
“Yet this alone is not enough,” said Pope Leo. “The food that sustains the body must be accompanied, with equal charity, by nourishment for the soul—a nourishment that sustains our conscience and steadies us in dark hours of fear and amid the shadows of suffering.”
Christ gives Himself to us in the Eucharist, sustaining the Church and strengthening us on our journey, he said.
The Pope encouraged Catholics to receive the Eucharist as a sign of God’s love, as the Father invites us in Christ to share what we have so that it may be multiplied in the Church’s care.
He does say that the miracle happened “while sharing.” He didn’t say that sharing was the miracle. Might also recall Elijah and the widow at Zarephath: she shared bread with Elijah first and then never ran out.
Matthew’s right, although his post doesn’t have many quotation marks. Here’s the official complete text of the homily.
It’s deliberately vague and flowery, and so one could easily interpret if to mean “sharing is the miracle” or not. He walks right up to the line, he’s not stupid enough to cross it (at least in the official transcript). It’s not a bad homily, other than the vagueness … Jesus thanked His Father, we too should thank God. Jesus gave; we too should be charitable to those in need. Nothing wrong with that.
Still, pacifist and pragmatist … immanentist wouldn’t be a huge shock.
I barely know what it is like to be able to listen to clergy without sifting out error. Sometimes blatant, sometimes intentional, sometimes merely sloppy thinking, sometimes just implied.
If I do actually arrive in the place that Christ is “preparing” for me, one of the primary comforts there will be that there no longer any such sifting to be done.
I have no idea what Leo means to say here about the event of the loaves and fishes, much less what he believes about it.
As pope, that IS the problem.
Bishops are tasked with transmitting the Faith *clearly* Popes even more so. I have zero respect for the intentional ambiguity that they think is just so clever.
See Theodore Dalrymple’s account of his time in Rhodesia and of his experience as a GP with African immigrants living in Britain. Among African populations, the pull of family obligation can be quite remarkable and a man with a handsome professional job often lives very modestly because he is a river to his extended family. Plenty of sharing. The principal issue in Africa is low productivity in every sector (and the necessary reliance on the expertise of foreigners. (Another issue is general disorder).
There is nothing heretical in that homily. He explicitly identifies Christ as the source of the miracle:
“The miracle he performed is a sign of this love. It shows us not only how God provides humanity with the bread of life, but how we can share this sustenance with all men and women who, like ourselves, hunger for peace, freedom and justice. Each act of solidarity and forgiveness, every good effort, becomes a morsel of bread for humanity in need of care. Yet this alone is not enough: the food that sustains the body must be accompanied, with equal charity, by nourishment for the soul — a nourishment that sustains our conscience and steadies us in dark hours of fear and amid the shadows of suffering. This food is Christ himself, who always gives his Church abundant sustenance and strengthens us on our journey by giving us his Eucharistic Body.
“Sisters and brothers, the Eucharist that we are celebrating is the source of renewed faith, because Jesus becomes present among us. The Sacrament does not merely revive a distant memory; it brings about a “companionship” that transforms us because it sanctifies us. Blessed are those invited to the Supper of the Lord! This very altar, around which we gather for the Eucharist, becomes a proclamation of hope amid the trials of history and the injustices we see around us. It is a sign of God’s love; in Christ, the Father invites us to share what we have, so that it may be multiplied in ecclesial fellowship.”
Also known as the Miracle of Kindergarten, which is how the kids don’t run out of crayons. And Jesus didn’t walk on water as much as stay on the sandbars.
Jesus provided and there was enough for all. You don’t give what you don’t have and then steal from people taking advantage of their good will. Illegal means criminal why Can’t the Pope say that????
Jesus turned two fishes and five loaves into enough to feed thousands with plenty left over. Sounds pretty capitalist to me.
Meanwhile at Vatican. va, it sounds like some serious theological backpedaling is going on to put P. Leo’s idea of the new “just war” theory on “traditional Catholic teaching” level ground. Rev James Massa, USCCB:
“For over a thousand years, the Catholic Church has taught just war theory and it is that long tradition the Holy Father carefully references in his comments on war. A constant tenet of that thousand-year tradition is a nation can only legitimately take up the sword ‘in self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2308). That is, to be a just war it must be a defense against another who actively wages war, which is what the Holy Father actually said: ‘He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.’”
I am trying to understand that if Iran, which has launched a 47 year war against the US (and Israel), with such events as: The Beirut Marine Corps Barracks IRG planned truck bombing Oct. 1983. 241 killed in a “peacekeeping role,” note that; The 19 US Airmen died and hundreds were injured in the Iran-planned terrorist truck bombing attack at Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, on June 25, 1996; The Iranian-developed Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) which caused a significant portion of US casualties in Iraq, resulting in over 1,700–2,600+ military deaths—about 52–66% of total combat fatalities in Iraq, and thousands more of permanently disabled; or, based on reports from the AOAV and ReliefWeb, approximately 828/829 US military personnel were killed by IRG-devised and distributed Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Afghanistan from 2001 through October 2020…(These are only a few high points. There are myriad more examples of Iran’s war killings and mailings against our men, women, and the US)…
.. Is this not “a just war. a defense against another who actively wages war?” A perpetual war, in fact.
Or Bp. Massa, P. Leo, and all you proudly prancing US cardinals and bishops “against an unjust war,” why do you not care about our killed and permanently disabled military men and women? Are they just “war mongers?”
And by the way, where are your references “over a thousand years” of serious saints and theologians who say “one must be attacked before one can fight ?” Can’t find it in Aquinas. Can’t find it in Bonaventure Help me out, Bishop Massa. I notice you don’t provide any references.
I think you are all weak, deceptive and cowardly puppets.
I don’t think I’m the only one who at least suspects the pope knows that some what he says just isn’t true. Amirite?
Steve Phoenix, thank you for laying it out for the younger folks why this is a just war against Iran.
It is important to know that Jesus worked miracles for true believers in Faith; the crowd who followed Him and listened to Him. Jesus worked no miracles for the high priests or non believers.
During the famine many people starved to death. The widow gave Elijah her last food knowing that she and her son would perish.
The Vatican took the money for the poor and spent it on themselves, while the poor went hungry.
Doctor heal thyself.
Now, now Mary, the Vatican didn’t spend ALL of those earmarked alms on themselves, some of it they used to invest in gay porn!
Two down votes? I’m not making it up! The Vatican invested Peter’s Pence money on the movie Rocketman … A movie that contains explicit gay sex scenes.
Don’t shoot the messenger
Report: Vatican Invested Peter’s Pence Funds in Elton John Biopic| National Catholic Register
How can the feeding of the 5 thousand not be a miracle? A boy with 5 barley loaves and 2 fish to feed 5 thousand. After they ate they gathered 12 baskets full of fragments of bread, and not just bread, but 12 baskets of fragments of the original barley loaves.
John 6: “When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.
Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.”