A mother who has to feed and cloth her children with no money left in her wallet. A father who has just lost his job and has little hope of finding another one soon. A young girl alone in a dark valley surrounded by a group of drunk men. A small boy alone in his room listening to another argument of his parents shouting in a room next to his… In our live, we find ourselves many times in situations that are impossible. All the doors are closed, no window to open. No exit. Dead end.

Today we see a group of men facing one of the impossible situations. They are in charge of a large group of people, supposed to feed them, but they have nothing to give them. Some of them, like Philip, start calculating: “we need to work for 200 days to have enough money to buy food”. Others seem to see some ray of hope colored by severe doubt: “well, there is a boy who has some bread and fish, we could try, although I don’t think it will work”. Only Jesus knows what to do since the beginning. She commands people to sit, he takes whatever he has, and starts giving it away. And suddenly the miracle happens. The crowds are fed. The reputation of the Apostles is saved. Everybody is happy. End of the story.

In our lives, things rarely end with such a happy ending. We very seldom know what to do when we are faced with situations with no sollution. There is no easy answer to all the problems in the world full of violence, hunger, poverty. Maybe the lesson for today is that sometimes it is not our task to solve all the problems. There is not much we can do to stop the war, to end the poverty, to provide food and housing for those on the streets. It’s not up to us. We need to know who is really in charge of the situation, and know to put our trust in this person. Just like Mary did with Jesus in Cana.

I know many people who live their lives with the burden of guilt for not being able to come out of the difficulties. Maybe this could be a message for them: “It wasn’t your responsibility. It wasn’t your fault”. We need to learn to held accountable those who really are without carrying all the world alone on our shoulders.