Faber is singularly infelicitous in filling this basket. He observes that our Lord at one time drew near to the sea, but did not enter it; at another put off a little from land, but soon returned to it, and now in to-day’s Gospel crosses the sea, and having crossed it, performs the miracle: so does He shadow forth three kinds of Christians in His mystical Body, the Church: those who only approach the bitter sea of repentance, those who just enter it and again return to land, and those who traverse it and are found meet to sit down in green pastures at His heavenly banquet. 3. Learn the custody of the eyes. Christ “lifted up His eyes” and beheld the multitude. He had them before on earth, not straying hither and thither; and so He teaches us to restrain our wandering gaze. His eyes meekly rested on earth; Eve’s, straying among the boughs, saw the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and those wandering eyes brought death into this world. So did the restless eyes of Potiphar’s wife light on Joseph, so did the unguarded eyes of David fall on Bathsheba, and the curious eyes of the two elders on Susanna. But we are not required to keep our eyes always fixed on earth, or closed; but to restrain them from idle curiosity, to avert them from dangerous objects, and to guard them carefully when we pray. There are, on the other hand, times when we should raise them, after the example of Christ. For the considering and relieving of the poor (John vi. 5), in giving thanks (Mark vi. 41), in praying (John xvii. 1), in giving instruction (Luke vi. 20), in seeking the glory of God in all our actions (John xi. 41). 4. Learn to ask God’s blessing on your food. As Christ gave thanks, and looking up to Heaven blessed the loaves and fishes. We have the same lesson in Deut. viii. 10, “When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God.” And we have the example of the Israelites who would not eat of the victims till Samuel had blessed them. 5. Learn care for the poor. Christ gave the loaves and fishes to His disciples to distribute among the multitude, and so He gives the rich their abundance, not for them to consume it themselves, but that they may “distribute and give to the poor.” 6. Learn to see God’s providence in the support of all men, and especially of His own servants. Thus did God provide manna for the Israelites in the wilderness (Exod. xvi. 12), bread and meat for Elijah during the famine (1 Kings xvii. 4), food for Daniel in the lions’ den (Bel and Dragon, 33). 7. Learn to seek the food of the soul before seeking that of the body. Thus Christ before feeding the multitude “spake unto them of the kingdom of God” (Luke), “began to teach them many things” (Mark).