Over the last several weeks in between occasional references to real crises facing the country, such as the recession and two wars which are still ongoing and a few which threaten to engulf us, the media has kept us distracted, first with the death of Michael Jackson, then briefly the death of Walter Cronkite, and then this week the hullabaloo up in Cambridge between the Harvard professor and the police officer. For the life of me, I could only stand a few minutes of any of those stories on the radio before I had to turn the channel to take a mental break.

Someone said this is all “bread and circus.” Before “bread and circus” became the name of an expensive supermarket chain (now called “Whole Foods Market”), the term had its roots in Roman times, since beginning with Caesar Augustus, the Empire provided all the inhabitants of the city of Rome with free bread, wine and oil, as well as entertainment. Caesar did not do this because he just wanted to be a nice guy; the Roman author Juvenal commented about the poor Roman inhabitants, with no vote to sell, their motto is "couldn't care less," Time was when their [vote] elected generals, heads of state, commanders of legions: but now they've pulled in their horns, there's only two things than concern them: BREAD and CIRCUSES.

In other words, by giving them “bread and circuses,” the emperor kept the people quiet while he did whatever he wanted. One wonders at time about what the big media companies don’t want us to think about while they’re serving us up these circuses of controversy or death.

While Caesar Augustus was serving up “bread and circuses,” down the far eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea Jesus was serving something quite different, although his diners did not understand the difference at first. We just heard in today’s Gospel about Jesus’ concern for the crowd and how He multiplied the 5 loaves and 2 fish into enough food to feed 5000 men, plus women and children, and still have 12 baskets be filled with leftovers.

People sometime try to explain away this miracle, saying that Jesus just somehow got the people to take out the food that they had with them and got them to share it. That the miracle was that He got them to go against their own selfishness and share with strangers. However, over the next few weeks we will be hearing in the Gospel what happens after the multiplication of the loaves, how Jesus tells them about something even more miraculous than multiplying loaves & bread – He tells them that they’ll have to eat His Body and drink His Blood. This is too much for them and many abandon Him. We have to ask ourselves – if we believe that Jesus can turn bread & wine into His Body & Blood on altars all over the world, why would He not use His power to provide enough food to feed the large crowd on the hillside?

Another thing I find striking in today’s Gospel is the statement, “Jesus raised His eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to Him.” We see large crowd in our country heading to the beach in good weather; large crowds waiting to get into stores on the day after Thanksgiving; large crowds waiting to get into sporting events or concerts. But where are the large crowds coming to Him, coming to Him who is the only one who can give the Bread of Life?

It is disconcerting how some many people choose the “bread and circuses” over the Bread of Life. But St. Paul counsels us in the second reading, “Live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love.” The more we do this, strengthened to do it through our being nourished by the Eucharist, the more the people around us, in our families, neighborhoods or workplaces, might become intrigued about what makes us pleasant people to be around. They’ll want to know our secret – that it’s not us who are bringing out some goodness we just had hidden, rather it is Christ multiplying His love through us.

As we celebrate St. James’ feast day today and St. Anne’s tomorrow, we’re mindful of how he as a friend of Jesus and she as his grandmother helped to spread Jesus’ message of love and forgiveness in this world. After they died, they affected millions of more people through their intercession to come to know Christ better. We ask Jesus for the help we need to multiply what little we have into something truly beautiful for God.