Today’s gospel is John’s account (from chapter 6) of the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand by Jesus. We often hear one of the accounts of this (in all four gospels) at Mass; John’s account is apt for the Easter season (when most of our gospel readings are from John), partly because we’re told here that the miracle happens shortly after the feast of Passover, ‘pesach’, so closely linked to Easter. The liberation of the people of Israel represented by the great Passover feast, so important for Jewish people throughout history, foreshadows for Christians our liberation through the death and resurrection of Jesus, ‘Christ our Passover’. In John chapter 6 the miracle is followed by a dialogue and discourse in which Jesus talks of himself as the ‘Bread of Life; so the account we hear at Mass today points to the Eucharist which we celebrate with particular joy in the Easter season, alongside those all over the world who became Catholics a fortnight ago.
God bless and take care
Fr Ashley
