NOTES for Mat 15:32-39

Today I would like to bring together statements by three different people about this event.

“What really happened?—people ask. How did it happen? What, really, was the ‘method’ of this act? I do not know. In his book ‘The Son of Man’, Father Alexander Men wrote: ‘We shall never know exactly how the multiplication of the loaves took place, but that is not what matters. By feeding the people, Jesus showed that genuine faith and a union of souls in grace can become a pledge not only of heavenly but also of earthly blessing.’” (G. Chistyakov)

“Imagine that this miracle happened as follows: Jesus had asked someone in advance and arranged for more bread and fish to be brought, knowing that the people would need to be fed. These provisions were lying somewhere nearby, and when he told the disciples to distribute the food, he knew there were more baskets of food in reserve. Would that have made the miracle nothing at all? Would everything have fallen apart if we had discovered such a natural cause?” (Y. Shreider)

We know that, during the celebration of the sacrament of the Eucharist, the wine and bread do not change their physical nature. This is explicitly stated in the ‘Instructional Notice for Those Celebrating the Divine Liturgy’. Eucharistic bread, the Body of Christ, must be handled carefully, remembering that it is bread that can dry out, grow mouldy and so on. In treating it reverently, we must preserve its physical nature. Yet this bread is changed (‘Changing them by your Holy Spirit,’ we say); without changing its physical nature, it is filled with new, absolutely new being. This also helps us understand the essence of the miracle described in the Gospel, when the bread multiplies as it is filled with some new being.” (G. Chistyakov)