Belen Jesuit Preparatory School

BYM Day Five: Loaves, Fish, and Underwear

Father Guillermo M. García-Tuñón, S.J. '87
 
(Father Guillermo M. García-Tuñón, S.J. is leading the 2019 Belen Youth Missions to the village of Vaca Gorda in the Dominican Republic.)

My whole life I have heard the story of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish. You know it. Jesus is preaching one late afternoon and when he is done, the disciples realize that it has gotten late and the people are hungry. What do they do?

Matthew, Mark, and Luke say there were five thousand men there, not to mention the women and children. Five thousand? I’ve often wondered if the Gospel writers were Cuban because that seems like an exaggerated number. 

Jesus is told that a kid has five loaves and two fish. Seemingly a small amount for such a large crowd. Cool as a cucumber, Jesus takes the food, says a blessing, and bam, not only are all the people fed until they are satisfied, but they have twelve baskets of leftovers.

I always thought that was one of the benefits of hanging out with the Son of God. Because he's so well connected, at the snap of a finger, bread is multiplied, water is turned into wine, and nets are full of fish. Talk about cool party tricks.

But something happened on this mission trip to the DR that has made this Gospel story powerfully real. Five days into our work in the mountains, there is still no sight of the container that carries the students’ bags. For five days, working under the hot Caribbean sun, mixing cement and carrying rocks and sand, these kids have had only the clothes they traveled with on the plane.

And yet, we have not missed anything. Shirts have miraculously appeared, work pants have surfaced, socks and underwear have been in steady supply, toothbrushes, toothpaste, sunblock... all of it has appeared. And the mood, under the circumstances, has been euphoric. 

While the devil was convinced he scored a big one by wrapping our container in the red tape of Dominican bureaucracy, he didn't count on the Christian sense of sharing. The chaperone who had two pairs of socks gave one away. The kid who had two shirts handed one to his roommate. The doctors gave out scrubs. And even the villagers themselves, knowing the circumstances the “americanos” were in, pulled out jeans and shirts to share. 

For as frustrating and stressful as the experience has been, I realize now the devil may have done us a favor. The boys at mass have reflected on how the rare scarcity of clothing and comforts they are currently experiencing is the norm for the poor villagers of the DR. They have lived, in a very real sense, the experience of living without.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still hoping the container is just at the foot of the Vaca Gorda hill, slowly but surely making its way up to our camp, but we have made do with what we have and we have worked like champs. I would never for a second doubt the powerful touch of the Lord and his miracles, but this years' experience in the DR has also shed some light on the power of the miracle of sharing.
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BELEN JESUIT PREPARATORY SCHOOL
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: communications@belenjesuit.org
Belen Jesuit Preparatory School was founded in 1854 in Havana, Cuba, by Queen Isabel II of Spain.  The task of educating students was assigned to the priests and brothers of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), whose teaching tradition is synonymous with academic excellence and spiritual discipline.  In 1961, the new political regime of Cuba confiscated the school's property and expelled the Jesuit faculty.  The School was re-established in Miami the same year, and over the next decade, continued to grow. Today, Belen Jesuit is situated on a 34-acre site in western Dade County, just minutes away from downtown Miami.