The account of Jesus multiplying the bread and feeding the people in the desert is one that is recorded in each of the four Gospels. The first reading recounts a similar incident from the life of the Old Testament prophet Elisha and may help us to understand why all the Gospels record this miracle. The man who brought the twenty barley loaves to Elisha was bringing him a personal gift, but for the man of God, gifts were to be shared with others.

The man could not understand how so few loaves could feed a large number, just as Philip objected to Jesus' suggestion that the disciples should give the crowd something to eat.

The Scriptures teach us, though indirectly, that every gift we receive is for the good of others besides ourselves and ought to be shared with others. We too often do not appreciate the gifts and graces which we have received from God's hands and so fail to understand how God's power can be at work within us for our own good, for the good of others and especially for the good of the Church.