How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?

 In those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.  And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar."  Then His disciples answered Him, "How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?"  He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?"  And they said, "Seven."  So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.  And He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and they set them before the multitude.  They also had a few small fish; and having blessed them, He said to set them also before them.  So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments.  Now those who had eaten were about four thousand.  And He sent them away, immediately got into the boat with His disciples, and came to the region of Dalmanutha.

- Mark 8:1-10

Yesterday we read that after a confrontation with the Pharisees and scribes who came from Jerusalem, Jesus went north to the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon.  And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.  For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.  The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."  And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."  Then He said to her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter."  And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.  Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.  Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.  And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue.  Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."  Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.  Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well.  He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

  In those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.  And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar."  Then His disciples answered Him, "How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?"  He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?"  And they said, "Seven."  So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.  And He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and they set them before the multitude.  They also had a few small fish; and having blessed them, He said to set them also before them.  So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments.  Now those who had eaten were about four thousand.  And He sent them away, immediately got into the boat with His disciples, and came to the region of Dalmanutha.  This is a second feeding of the multitude, which should not be confused with the first (see Mark 6:30-46).  They are two distinct miracles (and Jesus will refer to them as such in 8:19-20).  My study bible notes that the variance in the number of loaves is significant.  In the feeding of the 5,000, there were five loaves.  These symbolize the Law (the first five books of the Bible, the Torah or Pentateuch).  Here in today's reading there are seven.  Seven symbolizes completeness; here it indicates spiritual perfection.  In the first feeding, therefore, Christ reveals Himself as fulfilling the Law.  But here in today's reading He shows that it is He who grants spiritual perfection.   My study bible notes also that these crowds had been with Christ for three days; this is the number of days He will rest in the tomb.  A note tells us that participation in His perfection can only come through being united to Christ's death (see Romans 6:3-5).

Two distinct feeding miracles in this shortest of the Gospels can only teach us about the importance of food; that is, what it is that we feed ourselves.  In the parables, Jesus takes elements of everyday life, things all common people know and can relate to, and transforms them into stories that reveal truths to the people about the kingdom of heaven.  In these feeding miracles, Jesus takes the most common of substance for all human beings, nourishment, and turns it into an understanding that we are more than food.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus asks, "Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?" (Matthew 6:25).  He knows the people are hungry, and that we all need food to survive, but the occasion for feeding becomes a universal teaching that we must be fed with more than mere food to sustain ourselves in the fullness of our lives, as children and creatures of God.  Here, as in the first feeding, food becomes the distribution of blessings of God, true life given by the One who has come into the world for the life of the world, a clear prefiguring of the Eucharist.  A second feeding affirms the need we have for the food that He offers, and our dependency upon His "bread of life."  Seven in today's reading gives us a number of completion, fullness, perfection.  In connection, we note what transpired in yesterday's reading:  after a confrontation with the Pharisees, Jesus "retreats," so to speak, to the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon, where He does not want people to know He is there.  But, the text tells us, He cannot be hidden.  A Gentile woman begs Him to heal her daughter.  He at first refuses, saying He should not give the children's bread to the little dogs -- and we note again the use of bread, the significance of feeding.  Who are the children?  The woman replies that even the little dogs eat the children's crumbs under the table.  Highly pleased and praising her reply, Jesus heals her daughter.  In this number of completion, we can see the stirrings of what is meant not only for the children of Israel, but for all those children who will come through faith to this Gospel, and who will hunger with desire for His food, the bread of life He offers.  In these miraculous feedings, we are to understand His effect for the world:  everything we know becomes transformed in Him.  Our most basic needs and desires are meant for transfiguration.  His is the life that keeps giving, that changes everything, even as a cross becomes not an instrument of horrific death by crucifixion, but rather salvation through the life that He offers for us.  Food, then, is so much more than food.  It is an occasion for consideration of what we truly need.  It becomes an occasion to consider what we need to take in, what's going to feed every piece of body, soul, spirit, and mind -- and what in turn nurtures the growth of each of us as full persons.  We rely on Him to teach us our true needs, and to give us in turn true food that supports an abundance of life.   Lent is a time to consider what is true food, and what is truly necessary for life in abundance.   Let us give ourselves time to do so.