6. In the case of the five loaves a miracle of the
same type excites our wonder. By their increase five thousand men
and countless women and children are saved from hunger; the method
eludes our powers of observation. Five loaves are offered and
broken; while the Apostles are dividing them a succession of
new-created portions passes, they cannot tell how, through their
hands. The loaf which they are dividing grows no smaller, yet
their hands are continually full of the pieces. The swiftness of
the process baffles sight; you follow with the eye a hand full of
portions, and meantime you see that the contents of the other hand are
not diminished, and all the while the heap of pieces grows. The
carvers are busy at their task, the eaters are hard at work; the hungry
are satisfied, and the fragments fill twelve baskets. Sight or
sense cannot discover the mode of so noteworthy a miracle. What
was not existent is created; what we see passes our
understanding. Our only resource is faith in God’s
omnipotence.