The Plain Act of Giving

All the Lord wanted was their cooperation: the man’s generosity, the prophet’s confident faith, and the servant’s obedience.

The disciples of Jesus, however, when he tested them, completely forgot this Old Testament lesson [2 Kings 4:42-44]. He asked them where they could buy enough food to feed the large crowd. Philip’s answer shows how impossible the situation looked to them: “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.” Little, to our natural way of thinking, is as good as nothing. Since we have no solution, the easiest way out of the situation is to avoid taking any responsibility for others. In St. Mark’s account, the Apostles are more direct. They tell Jesus, “Send these people away, and let them go to the farms and villages around here, to buy themselves something to eat” (Mk 6:36). It sounds so reasonable, but behind it is a feeling of helplessness, a feeling that can easily make us conclude that others are better left to fend for themselves.

But a little boy responds selflessly to the situation. He calmly and innocently offers his “five barley loaves and two fish.” He does not make a calculation; he simply gives what he has, as if it is the obvious thing to do. It is the wisdom of the childlike, the poor in spirit. Sadly, we are often more like the adult Andrew, complaining, “…what good are these for so many?” Yet the little boy’s plain act of giving was indeed all that was needed.

-- The Anawim Way, Volume 14, no. 6