Matthew 14:20

20. All eat, and were filled Like the widow’s cruse of oil, when a part was taken, its place was instantly supplied by divine power. The loaf remained still as large when the piece was broken off, and each piece in hand imperceptibly became large as the loaf. Was this an original act of creation? Not necessarily. He who guided through the water the fishes to Peter’s net could guide the invisible atomic elements, in however gaseous a form through the air, to form upon the loaf, the material bread. This is but hastening the process that ever is taking place in the growth of the grain. There is but the additional modification produced by heat in the oven; but even this is only a different arrangement of the particles. Twelve baskets full This shows that the miracle was performed upon the bread and not upon the stomach. There was an actual increase of the amount of the material, not a supernatural cessation of the appetite under an imaginary or conceptual food.

The lad’s basket could doubtless have carried the original loaves and fishes. But when a divine bounty gives (so the Saviour’s miracle teaches) it gives plentifully and worthily, the wealth of a God.

The multitudes, John informs us, felt the bounty and the miracle. Tradition had reported to them that the Messiah would rain manna from heaven; and they now exclaim: “This is of a truth that prophet which should come into the world.” They were ready to place upon him the Messianic crown, with the expectation that the time of miraculous plenty and easy life was at hand under his reign. So little, alas! did the most munificent miracle spiritualize their hearts.