Father Abraham and the mountain where God provides

In this morning's meeting of Men's Bible Study, we talked at length on the meaning of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, Mark 6:32-44. To get a broad grasp of this miracle of Jesus, we also dipped into Genesis for the story of Abraham on the mountain with his son Isaac. It is good to pay attention to the two central questions in each passage:

1. Isaac continued, "Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the holocaust?"
2. But they said to him, "Are we to buy two hundred days' wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?"

Abraham answers his son, "God will provide the lamb." And Jesus answers the Twelve, "How many loaves do you have? Go and see."

St. Paul wrote of Abraham,

"By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer his only son, of whom it was said, "Through Isaac descendants shall bear your name." He reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead, and he received Isaac back as a παραβολη (symbol)."

That last word is also used by Mark and we translate it as parable.

God on that day did not provide the lamb to Abraham, and instead sent a ram, stuck in the thicket, for Abraham to see and use. Good.

But God did provide food for the crowd of 5000 men on the green grass, and we see this as prefiguring the Eucharist. The center of the Eucharist is Jesus himself, whom we know as the Lamb.

Great and wonderful are your works, Lord!

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