How Many Loaves Do You Have?

“How many loaves do you have?" 

Matthew 15:34

It would have been easy for Jesus to set out a banquet for the hungry crowd from nothing. He could have provided fish, the bread, wine and cheese. He did not need help from anyone if His goal was just to feed the hungry. Obviously, Jesus had another goal. He asked his disciples, “How many loaves do you have?” When the disciples showed him the bread and fish, then and only then, did Jesus multiply their offering, making it enough for the crowd. Jesus gave the disciples the food to distribute. He did not hand the food to the people Himself. Just as He used the disciples to bring blessing to the crowd, so Jesus also sends us to be His hands and feet, to bring food to the hungry, both bread for the stomach and bread for the soul. 

Blessed Mother Teresa said, “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed one.” She started in just that way, all alone in her mission except for her faith that God had called her to be among the poorest of the poor. “I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith." She then left her comfortable convent in Loreto, walking and walking and walking to find a place to rest her weary head. She had to beg for food for herself and for those she saw dying in the streets of Calcutta. 

Jesus used what was in her hands and multiplied it a thousand fold. When Mother Teresa died in 1997, there were 4,000 sisters in her Missionaries of Charity operating 610 missions in 123 countries. Let us never be afraid that what we have is not enough to help the poor. We just need to offer God what we have in our hands.