Short Cut to Wine

Embracing science and miracles

Mark 6:34-44

When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said, “This is a deserted place and it is already very late. Dismiss them so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” He said to them in reply, “Give them some food yourselves.” But they said to him, “Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?” He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out they said, “Five loaves and two fish.” So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass. The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties. Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; he also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied.  And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish. Those who ate of the loaves were five thousand men.

          Do you believe in miracles? That’s okay, you don’t need to raise your hands. I’m kind of skeptical of miracles, too. You’re at that stage in your life where you’re skeptical or doubtful of a lot of other things besides miracles, I bet. I once read a book by C. S. Lewis which helped me believe in miracles but still hold on to my scientific skepticism. The book is simply called “Miracles” and I hope you’ll read it one day.

          Lewis calls Jesus’ miracles a “short cut.” That is, what God the Father does over the course of years and decades, Jesus does much faster, in the blink of an eye, and it looks like a miracle. Like Father, like Son. Listen to Lewis’ explanation of turning water into wine. He writes: “Every year, as part of the natural order, God makes water into wine. He does so by creating a vegetable organism that can turn water, soil and sunlight into a juice which will, under the proper conditions, become wine.” (After you turn 21, you’ll appreciate this a lot more.) Lewis continues, “Thus, in a certain sense, God constantly turns water into wine, for wine, like all drinks, is but water modified.” Now Lewis applies this to Jesus, saying: “Once, and in one year only, God, now incarnate, short circuits the process: makes wine in a moment: uses earthenware jars instead of vegetable fibers to hold the water. But uses them to do what he’s always doing. The miracle consists in the short cut.” You see, once I saw that Jesus is not violating the laws of nature but only making them go “fast forward,” I saw that science and Christianity are not mutually exclusive; you can hold science in one hand and miracles in the other hand, and you don’t have to reject either one. I hope this will help you hang on to your faith, even as you learn more and more science in school.

          This is also how Lewis explains the two miracles in today’s gospel: the multiplication of the loaves and fish. In a slow and methodical way, God the Father is always taking a little bread – grains of wheat – and making a lot of bread. But Jesus uses a short-cut – he does a miracle – and speeds up the process in today’s gospel and feeds thousands. This is kind of like how your parents used to text using a flip phone – slowly! – and you text much faster using voice texting. The same goes for the fish: what the Father does slow and steady, the Son does fast and furious. Here’s my point, “the miracle consists in the short cut.”  Keep that in mind.

          Boys and girls, have you felt that tension between your faith and your studies? I hate to tell you this, but that tension will only grow stronger and become unbearable. Do you have older siblings in college or in their 20’s, who have stopped going to church? I’m not judging anyone, but I do want you to understand why they don’t go to church anymore. Science has trumped their faith, and they’ve let go of their faith and cling only to science. Or, maybe they, too, have learned about a “short cut to wine” and don’t really care about science or religion! Do you believe in miracles? Do you believe in science? Or, do you believe in both?

          Praised be Jesus Christ!