The crowd says: "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" This is the scandal of the Incarnation. Many people are happy to believe in a God that is some kind of idea, energy force or mythological being but they rebel against the possibility that God can be manifested as a human being. Jesus is truly human and truly divine. He proves his humanity by dying on the Cross and reveals his divinity through his miracles, the greatest of which is the Resurrection: "... who was descended from David according to the flesh and declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead." (Romans 1: 3-4) The multiplication of the loaves and fishes was more than a way to meet the crowd's physical needs - it was a messianic sign. Jesus is the only one who can meet the deepest longings of the people for someone to rescue them from oppression, sin and death. The purpose of Jesus' life was so that others may have life through him: "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." (Jn 10: 10) This is not a merely spiritual and invisible reality. It is revealed in a tangible through the Eucharist and the in-breaking of the Kingdom with the first fruits of that eschatological destiny evident in the life of the Church.
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