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The interpretation of the Gospel account of the feeding of the multitude with the five loaves and two fish by our Saviour Jesus Christ
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🎬 Părintele Calistrat Chifan - Evanghelia înmulțirii celor 5 pâni și 2 pești de către Mântuitorul nostru Iisus Hristos. Mănăstirea Vlădiceni
Among the many miracles performed by the Saviour were two great miracles worked upon inanimate objects, to show His disciples and the whole world that He is not merely a man, but also the Creator of all things and the true God. A proof of His divine power is also the miracle recounted in today’s Holy Gospel.
We have heard how the Saviour fed five thousand men, not counting women and children, with five loaves of bread and two fish. This multiplication of the loaves was just as marvellous as the turning of water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, which, when the wedding guests drank it, were all amazed at the goodness, the sweetness and the pleasant taste of that wine, which the Saviour had made from water. So too here in the wilderness: when the Saviour blessed the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples to the people, the sweetness and goodness of the bread satisfied them all, for they marvelled at His divine power, and all, united in a single purpose, wished to make Him King of Israel, since He cared for their needs and healed them of all their ailments.
But the Lord Jesus Christ said to them: ‘Work not for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures unto eternal life, which I—the Son of Man—shall give!’ The people, seeing that the Lord Christ was sending them to work and that the miracle of the five loaves and two fish was intended as a lesson, so that they might believe in His words, asked Him, saying: ‘What sign do You perform, that we may believe in You?’ Listen!… They had witnessed the miracle of the loaves and were asking what sign He would show them so that they might believe in Him, that He is the Son of God. Christ tells them – and us – that He is the bread that came down from heaven, that He will give His Body for the life of the world, that whoever eats His Body and drinks His Blood will have eternal life, and that His Body is truly food, and His Blood is truly a drink, and He also says: ‘Whoever eats My Body and drinks My Blood abides in Me and I abide in him; just as the Father, who is alive, has sent Me, and I live through the Father, so whoever eats Me will live through Me! This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the manna which your forefathers ate and died! Whoever eats this bread – My Body – will live for ever!”
Some of the disciples who had been following Him, on hearing these words, said, ‘These words are too hard to understand!’ and they left Him. That discussion, however, continues to this day, and will continue for as long as this age endures, because people without faith cannot understand His miracles; for they do not truly know God, nor do they know the faith, to their own detriment, and they will perish in eternal damnation.
But we, whom the Good Lord has had mercy upon so that we may believe in Jesus Christ and in His words, must be careful lest the tempter deceive us, and we too end up forsaking the Lord Christ. Let us also say, like Saint Peter the Apostle: ‘You, Lord, have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and come to know that You are the Christ, the Holy One of God! Where shall we go from You?!’
The Lord Jesus Christ, by giving His Body and Blood for the life of the world, did not give it to us to eat as a piece of meat and to fill our bellies, but for the sanctification of our bodies and souls, so that on the day of the general resurrection we may share in the heavenly blessings. Knowing the weakness of human nature, lest anyone should be repulsed at the sight of human flesh and blood and say that they cannot eat for this reason, He has given us His Body and Blood to eat in the form of bread and wine; God has chosen these two substances with which man is familiar. Therefore, these two great miracles performed by the Saviour foreshadow the miracle of miracles which takes place at the Divine Liturgy every Sunday and on feast days, namely the transformation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Many unbelievers, including sectarians who have strayed from the true Orthodox faith, claim that the Blood of Jesus Christ shed when He was crucified on Golgotha is the only Blood that saves our souls, and not Holy Communion, which is the Body and Blood of the Lord, and which is performed by priests in the sanctuary, together with bishops and deacons; they say that the breaking of bread or the Divine Liturgy symbolises the remembrance of the Lord’s Passion and death, and that it is by no means true that the bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of the Lord. They do not believe as we Orthodox Christians do.
That is why the Holy Apostle Paul emphasises this, saying: ‘I speak to you as people of sound judgement; judge for yourselves: is not the cup which we bless a sharing in the Blood of Christ?! Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the Body of Christ?!” Note that even Saint Paul does not say that the wine and bread administered by the apostles represent or symbolise the Blood and Body of Christ, but that they are truly the Body and Blood of the Lord Christ.
According to the misguided thinking of the sectarians, this would mean that all Christians should bless and break the bread just as the priests do, and receive Communion themselves. That would be a great error! However, the Apostle Paul does not say: ‘…which you bless’, but says: ‘The cup which we bless’, that is, we, the apostles.
Let us see how the Christian world received Holy Communion in the time of the holy apostles and how Christians do so today, after nearly 2,000 years of Christianity. History tells us that, in the beginning, Christians received the Body and Blood of the Lord Christ every Sunday and on feast days, administered by the holy apostles. To those who do not know, this seems like a lie, whilst to those who believe, it is a cause for wonder. The reason is that Christians have strayed so far from Holy Communion—and continue to do so—that very many, not knowing what Holy Communion is, or what great value it holds, disregard it and leave this world unsaved, filling hell with the souls of Christians, for whom the Lord Christ died on the Cross.
It is recounted in the ecclesiastical book known as the ‘Paterikon’ that a Christian brother went to a spiritual father and, filled with spiritual anguish, told him through his tears that he was being tempted by some evil thoughts, some deep-rooted sins, and that they would not leave him at all; he begged the priest to advise him on what to do and to tell him how to rid himself of them. The holy priest told him a most wonderful parable, full of truth, to help him understand, both him and us, the cause of these evil thoughts and where they come from, namely because he had grown cold in his faith, because he had given himself over to idleness, no longer burning with Christian love for God. The holy father said to him: ‘Have you seen, brother, that when the pot of food is boiling on the fire, no flies or insects come near it, but as soon as the fire goes out, the food grows cold, and then all the flies and insects swarm round the pot, even getting into the food, soiling both the pot and the food!
So too with us: if we are not fervent in our prayers to God and do not perform good deeds with faith and repentance, the black flies, the green and loathsome flies, the unclean spirits, and they defile the vessel of our soul: the body, the mind, the heart and our entire physical and spiritual being, through all manner of thoughts and desires, poisoning us and infecting our lives.
Some spiritual fathers have fallen into yet another great disorder and error, for have they lost their minds?!’ They have begun to hear the confessions of Christians in groups and to urge them to receive Holy Communion as often as possible; you have heard of such cases. They no longer take the canons into account and have forgotten—or perhaps never knew—that the absolution granted in confession is based on the penance assigned to the Christian, for a penance must be prescribed according to the gravity of the sins he has heard during confession. We must draw a distinction between the lives of Christians in our time and the lives of Christians in the time of the Apostles, for the sins that Christians commit today were not even committed by the pagans of the Apostles’ time. That is why a detailed confession is necessary, for those who confess in a group cannot be said to have truly confessed, and the Communion they receive is not valid.
There are some Christians who seek out spiritual fathers who will not bar them from Holy Communion, whilst others do not confess their sins as they have actually committed them, for fear of being barred from Holy Communion. They are making a grave mistake, for they are deceiving themselves. Others, especially women, conceal certain grave sins—sins of death, out of shame or fear of being barred from Holy Communion. Thus, if they receive Holy Communion unworthily, serious illnesses befall them and many fall prey to death, in terrible agony, just as the Holy Apostle Paul says: ‘…for this reason there are many among you who are weak and sick, and not a few who have died!’
There are also cases where someone has lain for a long time with a serious illness, then, after going to confession and receiving Holy Communion, has been healed, rising from the bed where they had lain for so long. Behold, the miracle of Holy Communion! It is more difficult for those who, throughout their entire lives, have refused to have anything to do with confession and Holy Communion, with the Church or with priests, and who, on their deathbed, hastily call for a priest to hear their confession and administer Holy Communion. Let it be clearly understood that the Holy Communion of such people is not guaranteed by any holy father; that is to say, it cannot lead to salvation. That is why it is said: ‘Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and whoever it falls on will be crushed!’.
Among Christians, as I’m sure you’ve heard, there are people who do not place their trust in Holy Communion and confession. They weep and cry out: ‘Alas, he died without a candle!’, but if he dies without confession and without Holy Communion, they do not really take it to heart; they are not interested. Above all else, they prioritise the candle. He may die with a hundred or a thousand candles in his arms, but if he does not confess and receive Holy Communion, woe betide him! It is a heavy burden on his soul; the fires of hell await him! So, whether you eat the Body of the Lord and drink His Blood unworthily, or whether you do not eat His Body or drink His Blood at all, you are heading in the same direction – to damnation. But why should we love sin?! Why should we not love the Lord Christ and His commandments?!
Let us draw near to Him with fear and trembling, lest death overtake us unprepared, as it has overtaken so many; let us seek to heed the commandment of God, Who says: ‘Unless you eat My Body, you will not have eternal life!’ In order to receive the Holy Sacrament of Communion with greater preparation, we must first make a proper confession, that is, confess all our sins without omission, receive penance, fulfil it, and turn away from grave sins.
For this reason, the priest must exclude from Communion those who have committed grave sins for at least one year, to see whether they have ceased from sin and to allow them time to fulfil the penance received at confession. Those who show no repentance during this time and do not desist from their sins—especially those living in cohabitation who have not renounced these sins, those who have abortions, practise witchcraft, women who defile men, and those who commit sodomy and other abominations, should only receive Holy Communion on their deathbed if they were aware of the gravity of the sin and yet committed it nonetheless. Those who were unaware should drink plenty of holy water during their fasts and then, with sincere repentance, approach Holy Communion.
A Christian must fulfil these and other such requirements if they wish to avoid perdition, for ‘it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!’ Perhaps our turn to depart will come, just as it has come for many. Blessed is the death of the person who departs prepared, having confessed and received Holy Communion. It is good to weep, to cleanse our vessel thoroughly and to find as many such moments as possible; that is why the Holy Fathers urged Christians from the very beginning—and even laid down a rule— especially the young, to attend funerals, to go and see what it means to be human, to remember that their own departure is also coming, and to weep, to shed tears, so as to cleanse their sins. We should not fill ourselves only with laughter, jokes, foolishness and all manner of evil, but we should also fill ourselves with weeping, to purify our souls and bodies; and in this way the Lord will receive us and we shall be His people, and He will be our God, our Father and our Saviour, and He will save us too.