In today’s Gospel reading, a boy voluntarily surrenders to Christ his provisions of five loaves and two fish. Perhaps he was a vendor and depended on the sale of that food for the day’s earnings. Perhaps that food was his whole day’s ration.

We will never know. But surely no one took it away from him by force, for Jesus would never have tolerated that. The boy, therefore, made an act of great generosity when he gave Andrew his five loaves and two fish. Not knowing in advance that Jesus would soon perform a miracle with his donation, it was even more than generous.

We could say it was heroic. His name was not retained by history, but his gesture was. Had he refused to surrender his foodstuff, perhaps the feeding of the crowd would never have taken place.

His contribution made all the difference on that historic day. Here one is reminded of what author Harold J. Sala writes in this connection:

“One of the myths you have to overcome to live a significant and purposeful life is the myth that you don’t count, that you can’t make a difference, that what you can do is so significant and the needs of the world so great, that what you can do doesn’t matter…

It matters tremendously to someone who is on the receiving end of your love” (Joyfully Single in a Couples’ World, p. 171). Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee