During the Angelus, Pope Francis reflects on the multiplication of loaves and fishes performed by Jesus and explains that when we recognize that we have something good to give and offer it, even if “it is too little compared to the needs,” God receives it and makes Himself “present among us.” This also happens in the celebration of the Eucharist, says the Pontiff, especially when we receive “the Body and Blood of Christ, the fruit of the gift of all transformed by the Lord into food for all.”
By: Tiziana Campisi – Vatican News
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“Offer, give thanks, and share”: these are the three gestures that are performed in the miracle of the loaves and fishes described in the Sunday Gospel, which Jesus repeats at the Last Supper and “which we also do in the celebration of the Eucharist.” The Pope reflects on each of these actions during the Angelus, first noting that the Gospel of John “speaks of a boy who has five loaves and two fishes” and explaining what it means to offer.
It is a gesture through which we recognize that we have something good to give, and we say our “yes,” even if what we have is too little compared to the needs. This is emphasized in the Mass when the priest offers the bread and wine on the altar, and each person offers themselves, their own life.
All of this “may seem insignificant” compared to “the immense needs of humanity, just like the five loaves and two fishes in front of a crowd of thousands of people,” but God makes it “the greatest miracle that exists,” explains Francis, making Himself “present among us, for the salvation of the world.”
Thanking God for the gifts received
To give thanks means to recognize “with humility but also with joy” that what one has is a gift from God and to return to Him, together with Jesus Christ, what He has first given us, adding what one can.
Each of us can add a little something. What can the little one give? The poor can give love. To say: “Lord, I love You.” But we, poor as we are, our love is so small, but to give it to the Lord, the Lord receives it.
Communion: growing together in charity
The third gesture, finally, sharing in the Eucharistic celebration “is Communion, when together we approach the altar to receive the Body and Blood of Christ: the fruit of everyone’s gift transformed by the Lord into food for all.”
The moment of communion is beautiful, teaching us to live every gesture of love as a gift of grace, both for the one who gives and the one who receives.
Francis invites us to reflect on what each person has “by the grace of God” to be able to “give to their brothers,” to ask themselves if they are grateful “to the Lord for the gifts” received, to inquire if “sharing with others” is experienced as “a moment of encounter and mutual enrichment.” Hence, the invocation to Mary to “help us live with faith in every Eucharistic Celebration, and to recognize and savor each day the ‘miracles’ of God’s grace.”
