It is interesting that the people listening to Jesus had no supplies left. Usually, when people set out far from home to a deserted place, they take enough food with them. Apparently, those present at the multiplication of the loaves stayed a long time, even recklessly, listening to the Teacher. Here Mary comes to mind, the one who preferred to listen to the Word at Jesus' feet rather than worry about food. Then it can be said of these people as well that they chose the good portion, that they chose the path of following the Teacher in the hope that He could take care of them. And, as always, such hope does not put them to shame. If this understanding is correct, then the narrative of the miracle becomes a story about trust in God and about His faithfulness to those who have decided to follow Him.

For eight chapters in a row now we have been reading about the glorious passage of the Son of God over the earth. Have we recognized Him? Have we learned to trust Him? To believe His word? Or do we still need signs? Have we "understood" everything, or have we remained blind? What is there more of in us: the leaven of the Pharisees, or the faith of the hungry and the sick? Does the one who was hungry and was fed, who was sick and was healed, who was blind and received sight, still need signs?

The disciples witnessed the feeding of the people. They were at that feast and even distributed the bread. But in everyday life they remain in doubt and are not sure that they will be fed, although Jesus is with them and they see Him with their eyes. But with the heart? Do we feel God's presence in everyday life, on Monday, in the boat in which we are crossing the week? Or do we "still not understand"? For the second time Mark gives a passage about feeding a large crowd with a few loaves. It is important to understand that if bread is given from God's hands, then it is not just bread. People are fed by God's blessing, by God's love. And this is truly real nourishment.

It is hard to understand what is happening to others when everything is all right with you, when you have nothing to plead for tearfully. When there is no real need, there is no need for hope, and no need for the Healer. When we do not thirst for an encounter with truth and love, when we have not been worn down in this world by our weakness and infirmity while seeking truth, it is hard to be satisfied with what God gives us. Such are the Pharisees: Jesus does not even speak with them. "He left them."

The disciples remain beside Jesus, see Him with earthly eyes, share a meal with Him, and see many healings, but still remain outside the mystery of God. They have received sight for the first time, like that blind man from Bethsaida. After the first laying on of hands, the blind man began to see like everyone else. He saw people outwardly. A person was able to "see everything clearly" only in the presence of Jesus, when he "looked intently."

God gives spiritual sight to those who thirst for it. For this, the "hardened heart" must be "softened." Then it will become clear what the spirit of Pharisaism is; then the spiritual life of people and of God will be visible. Then signs will no longer be needed. What, then, have we managed to "understand" over these seven and a half chapters? What have we really understood, what have we "seen clearly," how have we changed?

As we can see, the story of the miraculous feeding of many people with a small amount of food is repeated during the days of the Savior's earthly ministry at least twice. On the one hand, the mention of two similar events is certainly not accidental: the evangelist evidently considers it important enough that he finds it necessary to describe in detail two very similar events. On the other hand, the very repetition of the situation of the miraculous feeding of a great multitude testifies to its importance: in the Savior's earthly ministry there were no accidental events.

Of course, every miracle, whether healing, feeding, resurrection, or walking on the water, is nothing other than a manifestation of the Kingdom that Jesus brought into the world. But each time it manifests itself a little differently, even when it seems that there are no noticeable differences between, for example, two different healings. Here we have before us an event outwardly very similar to what had happened shortly before, when Jesus also fed a huge crowd with an amount of food that, according to the laws of the untransformed world, could not possibly have been enough for everyone.

Only between these two miraculous feedings another remarkable event took place: walking on the water. It was an event in which the power of the Kingdom was manifested primarily as authority over the elements of the untransformed world. And it was manifested in this way largely because another way in which the power of the Kingdom is manifested, a power revealed to those who seek it as the action of love, had not been adequately received even by the apostles. Yet it is God's love, not His power, that the breath of the Kingdom communicates to us first of all.

Feeding hungry people is a higher-priority task for the inhabitants of the Kingdom than subduing a raging element. The apostles absolutely had to remember this, and remember it well. Perhaps that is why the miracle of feeding many people with a few loaves and a few fish is repeated. And the evangelist probably tells again of an event so similar to the one he had already described for precisely this reason. For what Jesus wants to tell the apostles about the Kingdom concerns us too.