Quick: How much food did Jesus miraculously produce at the feeding of the 5000? An Awesome Amount.

Sometimes, the Gospels lose their impact on men.  Stories become familiar.  Reading is superficial.  Men’s minds become distracted.

The first step in moving from being a Casual Catholic Man to becoming a Committed Catholic Man is to come to realize that Jesus is Awesome.

And by “awesome”, what is not meant is the run of the mill, “That’s awesome, bro” when speaking of trivial things.

True “Awesomeness” is what is meant by the original definition of the word “awesome”, not the dumbed-down-everything-is-awesome modern meaning.  The word “awesome” traces its roots to the Greek, akhos, meaning “pain, grief” and to be “divinely reverential” and “dread mixed with veneration.”

So, only Jesus is Awesome.

Don’t belief that?  Begin to read the scripture with an eye for Jesus’ awesomeness; it’s on every page of the Gospel if you are willing to look for it.

Entering into prayer prior to beginning to read and then deeply meditating on scripture can help bring them alive (Lectio Divina).  A key way to engage the Gospels is to attempt to dig in deeply, attempting to put one’s self in the Gospels to get a better “eye witness” view of what is happening.

Today’s Gospel reading offers an outstanding opportunity to put the astounding impact of one of Jesus’ miracles in clearer focus.

Today’s reading is Mark’s account of the Feeding of the 5000 (Matt 14:13-21).  The basic story is known to us:  Jesus is teaching in a deserted place.  There are 5000 men there (not including women and children). It is late.  The people are hungry.  Jesus tells the disciples to feed the people. The disciples say they don’t have enough money (about 8 months of wages).  When asked by Jesus, the disciples say they have 5 loaves and 2 fish.  Jesus directs them to hand out the food.  The people eat.  Jesus has the disciples pick up the fragments and there are 12 baskets remaining.

What would it have been like to be there?  How much food did Jesus actually create?

Short answer:  An awesome amount.

But how much?

Let’s do some estimating (and focus only on the bread):

• 5000 men + one women and one child per man = 15,000 people.
• Each person eats about 1/3 of a loaf of bread.
• 15,000 people X 1/3 loaf per person = 5000 loaves.

5000 loaves.  That is a lot.  How much?

Here’s how much: 5000 loaves of bread would fill up about 1.2 semi-truck trailers.

This is amazing:  Jesus makes over a semi-load of bread appear from nowhere!  Truly Jesus is the Son of God!

 Catholic men!  Start searching for the awesomeness of Jesus Christ. The more you know about Jesus, the better you will know Jesus.  And the better you know Jesus, the more you will be awed.

Growing the number of Catholic men awed by Jesus Christ will fundamentally change the world.