Reading
Numbers 11: 4- 15
11:4 So then, the mix of common people, who had ascended with them, were enflamed with desire, and sitting and weeping, with the sons of Israel joining them, they said, “Who will give us flesh to eat?
11:5 We remember the fish that we ate freely in Egypt; we call to mind the cucumbers, and melons, and leeks, and onions, and garlic.
11:6 Our life is dry; our eyes look out to see nothing but manna.”
11:7 Now the manna was like coriander seed, but with the color of bdellium.
11:8 And the people wandered about, gathering it, and they crushed it with a millstone, or ground it with a mortar; then they boiled it in a pot, and made biscuits out of it, with a taste like bread made with oil.
11:9 And when the dew descended in the night over the camp, the manna descended together with it.
11:10 And so, Moses heard the people weeping by their families, each one at the door of his tent. And the fury of the Lord was greatly enflamed. And to Moses also the matter seemed intolerable.
11:11 And so he said to the Lord: “Why have you afflicted your servant? Why do I not find favor before you? And why have you imposed the weight of this entire people upon me?
11:12 Could I have conceived this entire multitude, or have given birth to them, so that you might say to me: Carry them in your bosom, as a nursemaid usually carries a little infant, and bring them into the land, about which you have sworn to their fathers?
11:13 From where would I obtain the flesh to give to so great a multitude? They weep against me, saying, ‘Give us flesh, so that we may eat.’
11:14 I alone am unable to sustain this entire people, because it is too heavy for me.
11:15 But if it seems to you otherwise, I beg you to put me to death, and so may I find grace in your eyes, lest I be afflicted with such evils.”
Gospel
Matthew 14: 13-21
14:13 When Jesus had heard it, he withdrew from there by boat, to a deserted place by himself. And when the crowds had heard of it, they followed him on foot from the cities.
14:14 And going out, he saw a great multitude, and he took pity on them, and he cured their sick.
14:15 And when evening had arrived, his disciples approached him, saying: “This is a deserted place, and the hour has now passed. Dismiss the crowds, so that, by going into the towns, they may buy food for themselves.”
14:16 But Jesus said to them: “They have no need to go. Give them something to eat yourselves.”
14:17 They answered him, “We have nothing here, except five loaves and two fish.”
14:18 He said to them, “Bring them here to me.”
14:19 And when he had ordered the multitude to sit down upon the grass, he took the five loaves and the two fish, and gazing up to heaven, he blessed and broke and gave the bread to the disciples, and then the disciples to the multitudes.
14:20 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up the remnants: twelve baskets full of fragments.
14:21 Now the number of those who ate was five thousand men, besides women and children