Seven loaves.
Oh, and a few small.fish.
Well they were a bit of an afterthought, weren't they? Is their presence significant?
Practically, we would expect fish to be on the menu. These folk are travelling with Our Lord from the Sea of Galilee. And of course, St Peter, St Andrew, St James and St John are all fishermen. It stands to reason that there are dried fish about for a snack.
But there aren't that many. In comparison with four thousand people, the number of fish is tiny. The miracle still holds.
So why aren't there fish at the Last Supper? If fish are a common food, why doesn't Our Lord give us Himself under the appearance of fish? Why does He give Himself under the appearance of bread?
[PAUSE]
The first thing to note is that while Our Lord is feeding four thousand, He is not giving them communion. The miracle is purely practical: four thousand hungry souls require something to eat. At the Last Supper, Our Lord is in a completely different setting - a last meal with His friends to establish His Church through the covenant in His blood. The presence of the fish in the feeding of the four thousand shows us that Our Lord can take what He is given and use it to supply people's needs.
But the question still stands. Why give us His body and blood under the appearance of bread and wine?
[PAUSE]
As we see, fish are only really available in fishing communities. Bread, on the other hand, is universal, whether it be leavened or unleavened. This makes it easy for the Church to be universal and for the sacrament to be readily available.
But wouldn't it be more obvious if Our Lord used lamb in Eucharist rather than bread? Isn't He supposed to be the Paschal Lamb that takes away the sin of the world.
Again, we run into the fact that bread is widely more available than any meat. It also has another property that fish or lamb don't: it can be broken and divided and still remain largely the same.
Those who don't believe in Our Lord's presence in the Eucharist often jeer at us when we receive communion.
"Well, which bit of Jesus are you eating there?
His arm? His big toe?"
They don't understand what they are saying, but they have just explained why Our Lord is umder the apoearance of bread - one wafer looks much like another. We aren't receiving a bit of Our Lord: each one of us receives His whole body, soul, mind and divinity - His full self!
Bread mediates that for us.
How He does it is as mysterious as the miracle of feeding four thousand people with five loaves and a few fish. We don't know how He does it. We know that He does it.
This may confound physics and metaphysics, but Our Lord shows us that as His body is broken for us, it doesn't make Him less. Rather it makes Him more present because He reaches more people.
Does that mean the Body of Christ can be divided?
[PAUSE]
Well, yes, insofar as it can reach more people who hunger for the love that He has for us, but no in that what each one of us receives is truly Him indivisible.
This is the paradox. This is the miracle.
Perhaps also we see how it is possible that there is One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and yet there be so many churches. The Body of Christ is divided to reach as many as will receive Him but is united in the One True Lord Jesus Christ to Whom be all honour, praise and glory forever!
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