Dear people of God,

Good morning to you all. On this seventeenth Sunday, both the first reading and the gospel reading narrate the miracles of the multiplication of bread motivated.

In the first reading, Elisha tells his servant to feed a hundred people with just twenty loaves. Despite doubts, there is enough food, showing that God provides even when we don't see how it will work. And we hear that the people ate and still, there was food left over. Likewise, in today’s Gospel, Jesus performs the miracle of feeding the five thousand.

Jesus asked the apostles how they were going to feed the crowd that had been following them. Philip replied that not even 200 days’ worth of wages would be enough for the number of people. All they had were five barley loaves and two fish from a little boy. Yet Jesus multiplied the food so that there were baskets left over. All ate and were satisfied.

I would like say two lessons from today’s feeding miracles. The first is from the compassion and generosity of both Elisha and Jesus for their flocks. Compassion moved them to generously feed their people. Compassion is the basis of empathy and sympathy. We need it to understand what it means for others to be hungry, thirsty, sick, homeless, jobless, and lonely. In fact, we need them to be human.

The second lesson is the generosity of the little boy and the servant. The servant gave the very best of what he had, and the boy gave all that he had, then God did the rest. He generously offered what he had and is generosity became the motivation of a great miracle for his community. From two fish and five loves, the community was blessed with more twelve baskets of food. This shows that at times, God works with what we have.

To be compassionate is to be like Christ. To be generous is to cooperate with Christ in his ministry. Christ sought the cooperation of his disciples and community. That little boy cooperated with what he had. He exhibited a fraternal spirit and so, changed the destiny of his community. The goods we have, our talents, time, knowledge, experience, including our faith are values that we must place at the service of others. A generous and compassionate attitude towards others can enrich the life of many, as well as our own life. When compassion and generosity embrace, great miracles happen for a community united by one faith, one spirit, and one baptism.

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