The lord be with you. A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. Jesus crossed the Sea Of Galilee onto the shore of Tiberias, that's going east away from Capernaum. And a vast crowd kept following him because they saw the signs that he was performing for the sick. In other words, curing them.
They had good health insurance in him. Jesus then went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now, this is on the other side of the lake. The Jewish feast of Passover was near when Jesus looked up and caught sight of the vast crowd that had followed him. Remember, they had to go walk around the northern part of the lake.
So seeing the crowd, our Lord said to Philip, where shall we buy enough bread for all of these people to eat? And in parenthesis, he knew well what he intended to do, but he asked this to test Philip's response. Philip replied, not even with two hundred days wages could be by bread enough to give each of these people a mouthful. Now one of Jesus' disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, remarked to Jesus, there's a let my boy here who has five barley loaves, a couple of dried fish, but what good is that for a multitude like this? Jesus said, get the people to sit down.
Now even though the men numbered about 5,000, there was plenty of grass for them to find a place on the ground. Jesus then took the loaves of bread, gave thanks, passed them around to those sitting on the ground. And he did this very same thing with the dried fish as much as the people wanted. And they probably were very hungry after that long walk around the lake, believe me. When they had had enough, Jesus said to his disciples, gather up all the crusts that are left over so that nothing shall go to waste.
At this, the apostles gathered 12 baskets full of pieces left over by those who had been fed with five barley loaves and a couple of fish. When the people saw the sign that he had performed, in other words, had fed without any trouble, a free meal. They began to say, this is undoubtedly the prophet who is to come into the world. At that Jesus realized that they would come and carry him off and forcibly make him king. So he fled back to the mountain alone.
The gospel of the Lord.