Author Archives: Bethlehem Abbey

Once again, we find ourselves on the waters, and in difficulty; at sea, but not lost. Mark’s fascination with Jesus and the disciples’ toing and froing on the Sea of Galilee really asks for our serious consideration. But before that, there’s still the matter of a mighty crowd, who have just been fed.

There are few passages in the Gospels which have so forcefully inserted themselves into the popular mind like the miracle which we now pray with, the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, or the feeding of the multitude. As stories go it is a gripping one: huge crowds swarming about the place; in their midst, a charismatic young preacher, whom they have been following around and who has been exciting them and engaging them with his teaching and deeds…

Mark presents us with two accounts of a miraculous multiplication of food to feed a great multitude, each with a slightly different twist (the second account can be seen at Mark 8:1-10). This first one occurs after the Twelve have returned to Jesus from their mission work.

The beheading of John the Baptist occupies such a key place in the history which accompanies Christ’s mission that all four Gospels give account of it or allude to it… This story has everything – sex, jealousy, betrayal, revenge, the corruption of power, the murder of the innocent, the instability of the wicked, the doubt which eventually unseats the powerful. One needs to be very well prepared to pray this section of Scripture by entering into it with the senses.

At its heart, the Gospel is all about proclamation. And now, quite suddenly, the group of men who are closest to Jesus – known by Mark as the Twelve – are commissioned to do just this and are sent out to get on with their work. This little account comes hard on the heels…