“Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”
Jesus said to Philip, a disciple of his, when
Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him,
following him on foot from several towns. (1)
Having compassion on them, who were tired
like sheep in the wilderness without a shepherd, (2)
“How can you give them something to eat?” (3)
He asks his disciples to feel their predicament.
“We cannot buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
Philip’s answer was real, limited; but
Jesus feeds them all. They were satisfied
With the five loaves and the two fish of a child. (4)
And so Jesus began teaching them many things. (5)
How can you feed these people today?
Starving people who have lost the food of soul,
Those who work for their body for food that spoils
Yet seek food which endures to eternal life. (6)
Do we have compassion on these people?
Those who have lost the soul-sense of hunger and thirst,
Who have lost eyesight for truth, light and spirit,
Who are wounded and harassed by wilderness animals.
How can we feed and heal and revive them?
Do we have food of which they do not know, (7)
The bread of life with which they will never hunger and thirst? (8)
Can we, in compassion, call and feed them?
– Rev. Yong Sub Sim
(2) Mark 6:34.
(3) Luke 9:13.
(4) Mark 6:41.
(5) Mark 6:34.
(6) John 6:27.
(7) John 4:32.
(8) John 6:35.
