It's all about the lesson

In today's gospel reading, Jesus is faced with a dilemma.
5,000 plus have come to hear his teachings. 
They are hungry.
He has 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.
What's a messiah to do?

Most people concentrate on the miracle, and to be fair, multiplying bread and fish is no small feat.
But I think Jesus had something else in mind.
You see, he was first and foremost, a teacher, a rabbi.
And like all good teachers, it's about the lesson.
It's about the students and teaching them how to live.

5 loaves and 2 fish could have fed Jesus and his inner circle of disciples.
Who would have blamed them?
They were the ones taking the risks, facing persecution.

The lesson is this.
They had very little, but what they had, they shared.
In doing so, they were following the teachings of Elisha “Give it to the people to eat, for thus says the LORD: You will eat and have some left over.”   2kings 4:42
and of John “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”  Luke 3:11

All religions and philosophies are built on this truth except one, commercialism.

The people of Windham Connecticut are standing together on this truth.
Hartford Healthcare has purchased most of the hospitals in eastern Connecticut.
Some of these hospitals are profitable, some are not, all are "not for profit."
The top executives make over $2million/year and receive additional bonuses of almost $500,000.
Windham Hospital is one of their hospitals that loses money and the state legislature and governor recognize this.
That's why they allocated Windham an additional $1.4 million/year for the next 2 years.

Hartford Hospital's response?
Close the ICU and other critical departments.
Turn the hospital into a receiving hospital to feed the mother ship in Hartford, some 25 minutes away by car.
Many people in Windham have no car.

The legislators, the unions, and the community are pushing back, because it may seem an impossible task to stop a large healthcare system, but I imagine so did feeding all those people with so little.
You can help, sign our petition https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/demand-patients-before-profits

Tell hospital executives to think of families before their pocketbooks
and patients before profits.