A lesson in God’s math

(Editor’s note: Deacon Solomon delivered this homily July 29 at St. Peter’s parish in Saratoga Springs.)

It is now post-time. During track season, Saratoga is transformed into a town of numbers, odds, betting pools, perfectas, trifectas and a dizzying array of statistics on those unpredictable thoroughbreds.

I have to confess: Math, especially higher math, terrifies me. Although I took many advanced classes, I begged my guidance counselor to spare me from advanced math, but he refused. On the long bus rides to Catholic Central High School in Troy, a friend tried to be my math tutor. He said it would be good practice, since he wanted to be a math teacher. Unfortunately, he ended up banging his head on the bus window in frustration!

At first glance, this Sunday’s readings are simple math lessons. Elisha (2 Kgs 4:42-44) feeds 100 people with 20 barley loaves: one-fifth of a loaf per person. The Gospel (John 6:1-15) yields an even smaller fraction, dividing five barley loaves and two fish among 5,000 people.

That is the difference between God’s math and ours: God does not divide; God multiplies.

We often look at our lives and our world with a focus on scarcity. Will there be enough food, water, energy to sustain human life as Earth’s population expands? “Scarcity mentality” is apparent whenever a winter storm threatens: Within hours, supermarket shelves are cleared of water, food staples and batteries.

But our God is not a God of scarcity, but a God of abundance, who created all creatures to be fruitful and multiply so there would be ample food and drink to sustain all life.

In the Gospel, Jesus blesses five loaves and two fish, and 5,000 people are fed — with 12 baskets of leftovers. We are not told how the food was multiplied. What is important is that, as the food was passed from one person to another, it was divided, so all had their fill.

No one took too much; no one hoarded extra loaves and fish. Each person took what was needed and not more, conscious that others were hungry, too.

Maybe that is the real lesson in this miracle. Could it just be that Jesus asks each of us to take only what is needed, to live more simply so that others may simply live? The Food Aid Foundation estimates that one in seven persons in our world are hungry and that a third of all food produced on the planet is wasted. In New York, 12.5 percent of households face food insecurity, meaning they lack access to enough food for an active, healthy life. More math!

God wants every person to have enough to eat. That is evident in both of the miracle stories we heard. God has provided Mother Earth with sufficient land and water resources to feed the whole planet.

Anyone who has ever grown a zucchini or green beans knows just how much one plant yields. We cannot have enough friends to distribute all our excess zucchini! The problem is not multiplication; it’s division: How much food is wasted in our refrigerators, or in the dumpsters of supermarkets all over the world?

The Haitian poor have a proverb: “God gives, but does not share.” It means that God gives human beings everything we need to live healthy and happy lives, but God is not the one who divides and distributes the bounty. That is up to you and me.

Faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles like world hunger and poverty, it is tempting to react like Elisha’s servant or Philip in the Gospel, with a lack of faith that so many hungry can be fed. Common wisdom is that, if we give something away, there is less of it than before: Give $10 to a beggar and we have $10 less in our wallet.

But that’s our math, not God’s. When we are open to God’s Spirit, we see unlimited possibilities, not mathematical equations. God always multiplies what we give away.

That is what Jesus did with the loaves and fishes. Anyone who has volunteered at a food pantry or homeless shelter has witnessed this miracle. Even when the shelves are depleted or the beds are full, somehow there is always enough for one more person in need.

Those who witnessed Jesus’ miracle that day wanted to make Him king. But Jesus ran away as fast as He could. That is not what He wanted. Jesus multiplied food so that each of us might realize we are all beneficiaries of God’s hospitality.

The Gospel invites us not to sit and be astonished by this miracle, but to look around and see the hungry, the poor, all those around us in need, and break our own loaves and fishes so the miracle of God’s abundance will happen over and over, right before our eyes.

I saw this every day in Africa. People who had nothing shared the little they had and, miraculously, there was enough for all. Each morning at Ukweli Home of Hope for homeless street kids, a pot of ugali (porridge) boiled on the stove. It never appeared to be enough to feed everyone; but, as they ate, I noticed that some kids shared with other children who were hungrier and skinnier. Nothing was ever wasted. No bowls were returned with food in them.
Miraculously, every morning there was enough for all.

As we gather around the table of plenty, let us ask God to transform each of us, along with the bread and wine, into people of abundant love, generosity and hope. That is the kind of math the world so desperately needs.

Come to think of it, maybe I really do like higher math — much higher math. God’s math is one subject in which we might all strive to get an A.