Too Little, Too Weak?

Homily for Friday of the Second Week in Easter

In The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis suggests that often our desires are not too strong, but too weak: “we are half-hearted creatures…far too easily pleased.” We are unaware of how much is offered to us, he says we are, “like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.”

In much of St. John’s Gospel, Jesus encounters the limitations of his followers. They don’t want too much. No, they are satisfied with too little. A large crowd follows Jesus – not because they recognize him for all he is, but because they saw the signs he was performing. They follow him like an audience attending a magician’s show.

When Jesus asks his disciples where they can buy food for the large crowd, Philip shows his own limited lens: “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough” for them to have only a little. Andrew is of the same mindset: “There is a boy with some food, but what good is this for so many?”

Christ, however, gives more than others would ever expect. He takes what is available, gives thanks, and offers it to the crowd. Not only does everyone have their fill, but there is much left over.

Yes, Christ is greater than others’ expectations of him and greater than our own. We often have a mental box that constrains Christ to our own limited views. Yet Christ does more, provides more, is more. Perhaps the challenge for us today is to expand our vision of Christ. Like the boy in the Gospel, we can entrust to Jesus all that we have. Like Jesus, we can offer thanks for what we have, even if it is small. Hopefully, we can see with the eyes of faith the great and magnificent wonders Jesus works on our behalf.