Loaves and Fishes

This evening - feeling the need to "get out and get around" , I visited the Wednesday night supper at a small Episcopal church I sometimes attend. There I saw a modern-day replay of the oft-told Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes.

Some of those who attend these suppers are parish "regulars" , but at least half seem to be people who are down on their luck - and of this half, I would guess a high percentage never had much luck to start with.

There was a "30-something" woman with two bandaged wrists. There was a superannuated "biker chick" : complete with bottle blonde hair, prominent tattoos,and the sort of heavy,dirty-looking tan you see on homeless people. There was a tired-sounding woman , who had a court date in the morning for her final divorce decree-and major surgery scheduled for the following day.

There were young men - dopers from the look of them -with sallow complexions, mouthfuls of bad teeth,and greasy caps they kept on at all times. I couldn't help but notice they fidgeted and snickered when the invocation was given.

They were,in short,a 21st Century version of the sort of people Jesus of Nazareth was often surrounded with, and preached to, and tried to save.

(The Pharisees of that day were outraged at the sight of a Rabbi consorting with such sinners - just as today's Pharisees - with their preoccupation with the written text-at the expense of the meaning of that text - are outraged at any genuine practice of Christianity by Christians ; but I digress...)

At our table, there were people who were genuinely hungry: so much so, I wondered when their last meal had been. One small - framed woman of Asian descent,put away two salads,and two helpings of the spaghetti with meat sauce ; then began gathering what was left over, and putting it into containers: going so far as to gather up milk pitchers from nearby tables, and pour the contents into empty water bottles, that she produced from somewhere.

A local area bakery had donated cakes, rolls, and loaves of bread,and others had donated canned and packaged goods. There were placed on a big cart; and-one by one-the separate tables were called. Each person could take one thing.

My Asiatic dining companion waved to me frantically, until I joined her at the cart. She thrust a box of rolled oats into my hand, then turned back to claim something else " for herself". I noticed husbands and wives employing the same strategy. Each one would get something that both would later share. (I was more than happy to hand over my oatmeal !)

Glancing around casually, I could see that a simple meal-for-one was being transformed into one or two days' food-lovingly packed into shopping bags that appeared from who knows where-and I was reminded of the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes - in which a vast multitude was fed from a few baskets of bread and fish.

I was also reminded there are those among us who are in daily need of a miracle.

Lord, grant it to them !