(Matthew 14:14-22)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ… today is an important day in the calendar of feasts and fasts of the Holy Church. On this day we mark the beginning of the Dormition Fast – a period of fasting leading up to the feast of the Dormition – the ‘falling asleep’, the repose – of the Most Holy Mother of God. The Dormition fast is only two weeks long… perhaps a short enough period of time that we can do our best to observe the fast and increase our prayers and awareness of the presence of God in our lives.

Today we also commemorate the veneration of the Precious Cross of our Lord. This pious observance began in Constantinople, where in mid-summer the land was often beset by various sicknesses. On this day they would bring out for the veneration of the faithful, the relic of the True Cross of our Lord. The Cross would provide solace and hope for those who were suffering from illness and by the Grace of Christ’s Cross, spiritual and physical strength would be bestowed upon God’s servants.

In the Gospel reading for today, we heard about a great and startling miracle –our Lord took the insufficient resources of five loaves and two fishes and fed the multitudes with them… Indeed, all ate and were filled and there were twelve baskets left over! This is an astonishing miracle of overcoming the natural laws of things, of taking what seems to be an impossible situation and overcoming all obstacles by the power and grace of God. Today’s Gospel speaks to us about the difference between the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of God… of our worldly or spiritual outlook and the necessity to turn to God for all things. There is a great and fundamental spiritual truth being demonstrated here that shows us how Christ can transform our weakness into strength, if we’ll only turn to Him.

As the evening approached, the disciples looked out upon the multitudes and become concerned and upset about the logistics of caring for and feeding so many. The disciples wanted to send the people away to the villages so they could get something to eat.

Our Lord instead commanded His disciples to gather up the food available there and to feed the people. But the disciples assessed what was available and said it couldn’t be done… all they had were two fishes and five loaves of bread… they could not possibly fulfill the task that the Lord has asked of them.

There was no way that they could feed these thousands of people with such a meager collection of food. But the Lord tells them to bring their meager resources to Him. He blesses and fills with His grace the small and insufficient resources brought before Him and He then sends the disciples out to do the job He had asked of them, to feed the multitudes. The overflowing grace of God is apparent and the disciples end up with twelve baskets of leftovers after the crowd has had their fill.

The illustration for us is clear – we too must not become discouraged and assume that something is impossible based on our limited, worldly assessments. We must bring our cares, our desires, our insufficiencies to God and allow Him to bless and provide the grace and means for their accomplishment. ‘With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’

It is so easy to become discouraged, to think that our problems are too complex, too insurmountable for there to be any hope. We are like the disciples who look out upon the thousands of people and see our meager supplies and we give up hope. But the Lord says ‘Bring them here to Me’. Bring to Me your cares, your sorrows, your plans, your hopes, your fears – bring these to Me, says the Lord.

This Gospel truth is applicable not only for those big challenges and crises in our lives, but for our day to day struggles with sin as well. Each one of us deals with various temptations that weigh us down and, perhaps, continually defeat us. We look upon our sins and, like the disciples in today’s Gospel, we say ‘it is impossible’, or perhaps we justify ourselves by saying ‘it’s just human nature… there’s no way I can overcome this’. But what does Christ say? He says ‘Bring them here to Me. With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible’.

Venerating the Cross this morning, let us think about what we heard in today’s Epistle reading… The Apostle Paul proclaims, ‘For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’ Here is the Divine Paradox!… Christ transforms the cruelest suffering, even death upon a cross, into triumph and the opening of the gates of Paradise! The cross becomes for us a symbol and a reminder of the victory of Christ, Who tramples down death by death!

And we find this Divine Paradox again if we can understand that it is in our weakness that we are made strong, it is in our recognition of our insufficiencies that we might hear the call of Christ: ‘Bring them here to Me’. If we spend all of our time and energy attempting to fool ourselves and others into thinking that we have it all together, we will never hear nor heed this call of our Lord.

Let us heed the lesson of today’s holy Gospel: taking our worldly assumptions and assessments of the impossibility of any situation, even our own persistent sinfulness, and submitting all things in faith and trust in God – bringing them before the Lord and seeking His blessing, His grace, and His strength which overcomes all obstacles.