Multiplication Tables

Beholding the betrothal of words and numbers

08/05/2019

Matthew 14:13-21 When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns. When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said, "This is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves." He said to them, "There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves." But they said to him, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have here." Then he said, "Bring them here to me," and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over– twelve wicker baskets full. Those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children.

Numbers are my nemesis. What do I mean by “nemesis”? A nemesis is described as “a long-standing rival; an archenemy.” Numbers, and in particular mathematics, algebra, and calculus were always my worst subjects in school. On the other hand, I loved words, and so my favorite subjects were always spelling, reading, English, literature, poetry and composition. I would drag myself to math, but I would run to reading. Even trying to spell the word “trigonometry” would trigger my body to go into convulsions.

Several years ago, however, a good friend of mine explained that sometimes there must be a marriage of numbers and words. I could not think of a more odd couple! Numbers and words in my mind were like the comic strip “The Lockhorns” because they are always arguing and fighting. We happened to be talking about long-term planning of parish finances. She is a very sharp CPA and knows numbers well. Numbers are some of her best friends. But she humbly acknowledged: “Good strategic planning uses numbers to describe the first 3 to 5 years, but words must do the work to take you any farther into the future.” In other words, numbers start the plan because they are precise, but words must finish it because they allow flexibility with the future. Like a relay race, one runner must hand the baton off to the next runner, so numbers must hand the baton of strategic planning to the words who will win the race. Or, to change the metaphor: numbers and words are like the two tracks of a railroad that stretch into the future and both carry us forward, each shouldering half the load. Only on that distant horizon of heaven will those two tracks meet and kiss, and finally be friends.

Well, I believe we don’t have to wait till heaven to be guests at the marriage of numbers and words. We witness that blessed betrothal in the scriptures, especially in the gospel passage of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish. Whenever the evangelist Matthew employs numbers his is not only pin-pointing a historical event with precision, he is also suggesting a deeply symbolic and spiritual event with eternal consequences. Hence, in Matthew 14 the fact that there were five barley loaves and twelve wicker baskets of leftovers indicates Jesus has come to feed the children of Israel as the new Moses. The original Moses gave the people manna (bread) from heaven and fed them with the first five books of the Old Testament called the Torah, and that bread and those books were more than enough for the twelve tribes of Israel.

But do you remember Jesus performed another miraculous multiplication of loaves and fish? In Matthew 15 (a chapter later) Jesus is outside of Judea, in Gentile territory called the Decapolis, and he feeds four thousand people with seven loaves and there are seven baskets of leftovers. The seven loaves and baskets symbolized God creating everything in seven days, which included all humanity (Jews and Gentiles) – and therefore seven symbolizes Jesus desire to save everyone, not just the Jews. We read in 1 Timothy 2:4: “God wills everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” In other words, Matthew presents sort of two “multiplication tables” upon which our Lord places numbers and words, loaves and fish, to feed not only the Chosen People, but also the Unchosen People, that is, everyone. Can you see how numbers and words sort of meet in a kind of marriage in the scriptures? They are like the two tracks of a spiritual railroad that carry us beyond the horizon of this world to heaven, indeed to the heavenly banquet.

My friends, do you know where the multiplication tables of Matthew’s gospel were pointing to? To the table of the Last Supper, where Jesus took bread again, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to his apostles to eat. In other words, the real miracle of Bread was and is the Eucharist. And Jesus still multiplies it for many, now not for 5,000 or for 4,000, but for 1.2 billion. That’s the approximate number of Catholics in the world today. But we believe our Orthodox brothers and sisters also partake of a valid Eucharist, and there are approximately 260,000,000 of them. So, how many people is Jesus feeding with the blessed and broken Bread of his Body today? You know I go into convulsions to do such calculus, but I think that is 1,460,000,000 people. At every Mass, therefore, we approach the multiplication tables where we behold the betrothal of numbers and words, and the Eucharist that is for everyone to eat.

Praised be Jesus Christ!