SEVEN BASKETS FULL

Wednesday in the 1st Week of Advent
Mt. 15:29-37

When we read and reflect on the Gospel today, quite often we either overlook or notice but give rather very little significance to the detail that says that after the crowd had its fill, there were seven baskets full of collected scraps left. Certainly, Jesus had His eyes on the future. Did He not oversee that there would be too much food to feed the crowd? Did He not know beforehand that there would be seven baskets full of collected scraps in the end? And why seven baskets? Why not three or five or ten or twelve? Why seven?

Three things why.

First, the fact that there was so much food left after the hungry people ate as much as they wanted teaches us that God does not only provide us with what is enough. He also gives us more than enough. In Him is abundance of everything that is good. He is not stingy with His blessings.

Second, seven is a perfect number for the Jews. God does not only supply us with what is more than enough. God gives us perfectly what we need. In the abundance of His providence toward us is the perfection of His grace upon us.

Third, the seven baskets full of nourishment foreshadow the overflowing and inexhaustible wealth that Jesus inaugurates by His coming. This unfathomable treasure remains available to us through the Church with her seven sacraments. Instituted by Christ to give grace, the seven sacraments answer to the deepest hungers we have at certain periods in our lives.

The miracle today is more than just the multiplication of loaves and fish. The miracle continues even today as the seven baskets do not run empty and we are continuously being fed from them.