The Miracle of 5 loaves and 2 fish

The miracle of 5 loaves and 2 fish appears in all 4 canonical gospels. We are reading the Johannite version today. John's version includes a unique detail that does not appear in the other three. The 5 loaves and 2 fish came from a boy (John 6:9). I think this detail can dispel the myth that the miracle was NOT a miracle.

In a generation of scientific thinking, people want to do away with miracles and explain them away with scientific explanations instead. Jesus' healing miracles and exorcism were assigned psychosomatic explanations. Jesus became a faith-healer only. When I was a young boy, I heard on a Sunday radio program which explained the 5 loaves 2 fish miracle with the following explanation. The food came from the 5000 people themselves. When they knew that the boy selflessly offered his 5 loaves and 2 fish, they took out their food to share. So, it was not a miracle after all. The altruistic behaviour touched the crowd. This seems a reasonable explanation but a second thought will render it useless.
Consider the size of the crowd. Imagaine how 12 apostles were able to settle the crowd of 5000 to sit down in groups of 50s and 100s (Mark 6:40). How long did it take to pass around the message that a generous boy offered up 5 loaves and 2 fish to share with everybody? Moreover, the other 3 gospels do not mention this boy. Obviously, only a small group near Andrew and Jesus knew where the food came from.
On the contrary, I hypothesize that the boy was not generous but was selling food to the crowd. Why would a boy carry 5 loaves and 2 fish to join the crowd flocking towards Jesus? The food was more than he could consume. Therefore, it was possible then that the boy wanted to do some business with his surplus food. No matter how mundane the original purpose of the food might have been, Jesus made use of it to work a miracle. Yes, God is able to transform our humble and ignoble means into edifiying and sanctifying channels of grace.

Fr. Martin Ip delivered a very good homily today. He focused on our reluctance to cooperate with Christ. In the first reading, we read the story of multiplication of loaves by Elisha (2 Kings 4:42-44). A man from Baal-shalishah brought Elisha 20 loaves of barley. Elisha instructed his servant to give them to 100 men. His servant questioned how 20 loaves of bread would be enough for 100 men. Elisha insisted and the 100 men were fed and there were leftovers. A multiplication of loaves miracle had taken place. This was a pre-figure of Jesus' miracle.
In the Johannite version of the miracle, Philip played a similar role as Elisha's servant with a difference. Unlike the synoptic version in which the apostles asked Jesus to send the crowd away, Jesus took the initiative to test Philip how they were to buy bread to feed the crowd (John 6:5). Philip gave an objective answer (200 denarii) without objecting openly Jesus' intention to feed the crowd. He might think that the sheer size of the problem would be enough to dissuade Jesus from doing the impossible.
Here, Fr. Martin pointed out a common mistake we make in our life as a Christian. Very often, we do not have enough faith in God, forgetting that He loves us and is able to do anything for our good. Very often, we are discouraged by a perceived problem and throw our hands up in the air, forgetting that God is God because He is apt at turning evils into goods.Very often, we think that our capabilities are insignificant, forgetting that Jesus has once multiplied 5 loaves to feed 5000 men. We do not have the faith that Jesus will do the same, multiply our efforts more than 5000 times to achieve a good cause.

Dear Lord, I pray that we do not belittle our meagre and insignificant contribution. May we offer up our unworthy deeds for You to build up the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Amen.