Eucharistic meditation, June 19

2 Kings 4:42: “Now a man came from Baal-shalishah and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack.”

One of the similarities between these two brief stories is that both are stories of gathering, bringing, and feeding. The sons of the prophets go into the land to gather food for the stew, bring back gourds, and put them in the stew to feed the rest of the sons of the prophets. In the second story, the man from Baal-shalisha brings first fruits of barley and the first growth of grain, which have been gathered from the field, and then they are distributed to the people.

The crucial connection here is that in both cases the food has to be brought to the prophet. If the sons of the prophets had eaten the

gourds out in the field, or had brought them to a place where Elisha was not present, the stew would have been death. If the man from Baal-shalishah had attempted to distribute his bread among 100 men at home in Baal-Shalishah, it would have been inadequate. In both cases, there is something wrong with the food. It is deadly or inadequate. But when it is brought to the prophet, offered to him, then it is sanctified and made nourishing. When the food is brought to the prophet, it is enough.

Twenty loaves are not sufficient for 100 men; but when the twenty loaves are brought to the prophet, they are not only adequate, but more than adequate. There are leftovers. Five barley loaves and two fish are nowhere near sufficient for 5000. But when brought to the greater Elisha, everyone has enough to eat, and there are 12 baskets of fragments remaining.

Here at the end of 2 Kings 4 we are confronted again with the lesson of the beginning – the infinite of God’s resources. This is one of the lessons of the Eucharist. The Father has one bread, one loaf, Jesus, the bread who came down from heaven. But He distributes that one loaf as life to the whole world. It is never exhausted. It is adequate and more than adequate. He never runs short of life and food for His people. There is always more.

In the midst of a culture of death, Jesus, the greater Elisha, gives life to the sons of the prophets. And the life that he gives is not some bare minimum. He gives life, and gives it abundantly.