MARY, OUR MOTHER

SCRIPTURE COMMENTARY #284

And Jesus going out saw a great multitude: and he had compassion on them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came to him, saying: "This is a desert place, and the hour is now past: Send them away, that going into the next villages and towns, they may buy themselves meat to eat." And he answering said to them: "Give you them to eat." And they said to him: "Let us go and buy bread for two hundred pence, and we will give them to eat." And he saith to them: "How many loaves have you? go and see." And when they knew, they say: "Five, and two fishes." And he commanded them that they should make them all sit down by companies upon the green grass. And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties. And when he had taken the five loaves, and the two fishes: looking up to heaven, he blessed, and broke the loaves, and gave to his disciples to set before them: and the two fishes he divided among them all. And they all did eat, and had their fill. (Mark 6:34-42)

OUR LORD'S OMNIPOTENCE: St. Augustine writes thus about the miracle of the loaves and fishes: "Jesus multiplied the bread in His Hands by virtue of the same power wherewith God multiplies a few grains of corn into a waving cornfield. The five loaves were like unto those grains of corn which, when sown, do not lie unfruitful in the ground, but to which increase is immediately given by Him who is the Creator of the world." Thus the miraculous multiplication of the loaves showed forth the creative Omnipotence of Our Lord, proving Him to be the Almighty God who every year multiplies the grains of corn which are sown in the earth.

[From 'A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture' by Bishop Knecht, D.D.]
(1899 Douay-Rheims Bible)