Millions!

On a recommendation from Pius (I think that's his blog identity on here), Isabel and I watched a DVD of Millions this weekend. It was a better film than we had expected (and certainly more aesthetically complex), but there were a few glaring problems. Foremost, the film lacked narrative consistency. Perhaps we were supposed to dismiss this need, since the whole story has a certain dreamlike quality to it. Nevertheless, fantasy is generally more satisfying when it abides by predictable rules.

Less problematic from an artistic point of view but more disturbing as a Catholic viewer was the need to have an apparition of St. Peter explain that the miracle of the loaves and fishes wasn't a supernatural phenomenon, but the result of Jesus playing emotional games with his listeners. That is, Jesus saw that the people needed food, so he passes around the few loaves and fishes on a plate. No one wants to be a jerk and take the food, leaving nothing for the next guy, so each listener finds some little bit of food they had stashed on their person and eats that instead. God helps those who help themselves. (It was particularly coincidental that this Sunday's readings dealt with an account of one of these mutliplication miracles just after we watched the movie.) It seems to me that of all the miracles, social justice idolators love to hijack this one.

For some reason these people think that the miracle story is more inspirational when its otherworldly aspects are removed. I suppose they are afraid that the faithful will become passive if they think they just rely on God for everything (goshforbid); that there is no need to worry about supplying the hungry with food if God can just make food appear (as if anyone would really think that). They think it is better for us to tell stories about God leading people to help themselves rather than God being moved to compassion for us. They think it is better to imagine the bounty of humans working together as a collective than to imagine God's grace being so super-abundant that it provides more than what we need or even ask for.

But if it wasn't a supernatural miracle, then why would people have asserted that it was? Luke has no trouble reporting how early Christian communities sacrificed their personal wealth to the apostles in Acts. The Gospel writers could have had Jesus say, "Okay, everybody. Empty your pockets."

It's not like the people asked Jesus for food (at least in John 6:1-15). Rather, Jesus takes the initiative to provide for those people. It doesn't say that those people didn't bring food for themselves, but it's pretty darned explicit about the fact that they took as much as they wanted (and we all know how people get around free food). It's also perfectly clear that the people recognized something truly profound had happened:

When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,
“This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.”
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king,he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

If the President of America (Bush or otherwise) convinced all the people at a rally to share granola bars and bottles of water, would they suddenly beg him to become dictator for life for his cleverness? Why would a mass of people suddenly want to make an itinerate preacher their king because he got them to expose the food they had packed? Jesus would look like a smart leader, but would that incident alone seem worth treason?

The point of the story is precisely that Jesus really did multiply loaves and fishes. You can't understand it's Eucharistic message otherwise. He is the one who feeds us with more than we need; and he feeds us through his sheer will to do so.

And to those who would make social justice the end of faith rather than a means to it, consider that believing in Christ's supernatural being is the most effective way of motivating his followers to action. It is when Christ shows his Divinity that his listeners are most moved to change their political reality; they will make him a king. If you want to get people to start changing the world, remind them that Jesus really did multiply loaves and fishes; don't try to convince them that he didn't.

On the other hand, Jesus intentionally avoids leading the people into political action.