Mosaic found in the floor of the
Church of Loaves and Fishes

A woman in our parish church gave an excellent homily on today’s Gospel of the multiplication of loaves and fish. However, she did not answer the question which comes to my mind whenever I hear this Gospel about this miracle. The question is why, after Jesus multiplied the five loaves and two fish so all the crowd had enough to eat, were there twelve wicker baskets of leftovers? Jesus was not known as a person of excess and waste.

When I was at the Church of Loaves and Fishes at Tabgha in Israel in the 90’s I heard this story, which may answer this question. In the days of Jesus where walking on dusty roads was the main form of transportation and there was no food stops, persons carried around their neck a small pouch with bread or dried fish. The story goes that when the crowd saw Jesus take the five loves and two fishes, all his disciples could find, and share it with the crowd they were moved to share the little bit they had. So with the multiplication of the loaves and fishes by Jesus and the sharing of the persons in the crowd there were leftovers.

I was impressed with this story when I first heard it at the site of the miracle and continue to be impressed every time this Gospel is read. Jesus multiplying the five loaves and fishes to feed the crowd was one miracle. But this miracle inspired the second miracles of the leftovers.

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