2 Kings 4:42-44A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing Elisha, the man of God, bread from the first-fruits, twenty barley loaves and fresh grain in the ear.’ ‘Give it to the people to eat’, Elisha said. But his servant replied, ‘How can I serve this to a hundred men?’ ‘Give it to the people to eat’ he insisted ‘for the Lord says this, “They will eat and have some left over.” He served them; they ate and had some left over, as the Lord had said.

(Scripture reading from the Jerusalem Bible, © Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, Random House, Inc,)

This is the second time in 3 years that I felt moved to quote from Elisha, on the 17th Ordinary Sunday in the Catholic Missal.

I wrote then that this reading has words of such simplicity yet depth of meaning, as to transcend through the ages in its relation to the Miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand (John 6:1-15). It is also the hallmark of hospitality in many cultures, both Eastern and Western, and reflects the generosity and largess that stems from God’s abundance and gifts of the Earth, its produce and the inherent virtues of created things.

Perhaps more worldly and less wise in this prolonged period of self-indulgent isolation, is the simplicity of luxury, of a Sunday breakfast of local ground coffee, toasted baguette, accompanied by a spade of slated butter and some fig preserve. Perfect. Like the Roman “rosette”.

iphone 7, July 2021