Eighteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time
Lectionary:
112
Reading
1IS 55:1-3
Thus says the LORD:
All you who are thirsty,
come to the water!
You who have no money,
come, receive grain and eat;
Come, without paying and without cost,
drink wine and milk!
Why spend your money for what is not bread;
your wages for what fails to satisfy?
Heed me, and you shall eat well,
you shall delight in rich fare.
Come to me heedfully,
listen, that you may have life.
I will renew with you the everlasting covenant,
the benefits assured to David.
Responsorial PsalmPS
145:8-9, 15-16, 17-18
R. (cf. 16) The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers
all our needs.
The LORD is gracious and
merciful,
slow to anger and of great
kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his
works.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our
needs.
The eyes of all look hopefully to you,
and you give them their food in
due season;
you open your hand
and satisfy the desire of every
living thing.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our
needs.
The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in
truth.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our
needs.
Reading 2ROM
8:35, 37-39
Brothers and sisters:
What will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?
No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly
through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities,
nor present things, nor future things,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
AlleluiaMT
4:4B
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
One does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelMT
14:13-21
When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist,
he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.
The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from
their towns.
When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured
their sick.
When it was evening, the disciples approached him and
said,
“This is a deserted place and it is already late;
dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages
and buy food for themselves.”
Jesus said to them, “There is no need for them to go
away;
give them some food yourselves.”
But they said to him,
“Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”
Then he said, “Bring them here to me, ”
and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up
to heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves,
and gave them to the disciples,
who in turn gave them to the crowds.
They all ate and were satisfied,
and they picked up the fragments left over—
twelve wicker baskets full.
Those who ate were about five thousand men,
not counting women and children.
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
Living in Right Relationship with God guarantees
that whatever we need for a joyful, fruitful life will be provided for. We will
be protected and watched over. We will be able to experience a life the way our
Creator intended it for us. We are invited to procure these things though a
relationship with God. Through the Prophet Isaiah, God calls us to quench our
spiritual thirst by receiving what God is offering us and it is through
receiving what is freely given that a new world will be opened to us. The
powerful imagery of water is used to describe the experience. We all have been thirsty
in our lives. We know what it feels like and we know that it is physically and
mentally draining. It is very difficult to focus on anything else when we are
thirsty. Using this universal feeling and understanding of being thirsty God
then transferred the feeling of one’s thirst being quenched to that of relief
from all burdens and a feeling of satisfaction with a relationship with God.
Water is the foundation of all life on this planet and through the analogy that
God presents it is fully emphasized that He is the foundation of all of
creation.
Recognizing who God is becomes the first step in
a relationship with Him. Once there is a true recognition there will be a
natural reaction to get closer to Him. In other words the more familiar we
become with God then the more we will want to become intimate with Him. With
this intimacy then comes a reaction to His presence and type of relief as
described in Isaiah. The renewal mentioned is something that is continuous. The
more we experience God then the more these experiences will happen. We
will have the capability to renew ourselves and refresh ourselves every single
moment of our lives. It will become a regular thing and something that is not
just extraordinary. We are promised a clear, consistent, and constant
opportunity of renewal that never stops in this life and the next.
The refreshment and renewal promised by a
relationship with God has the capability of never stopping. It becomes a way of
life and leads to more powerful experiences. These are known as divine
revelation that then bring us to a higher awareness because we are sharing in
the existence and experiences of God. Our perceptions of reality and the world
around us become secondary to the vision that is provided by God. Where we were
blind before we then become able to see the true reality of everything around
us. God further promises through Isaiah that if we listen “we may have life.” What did we have before if God is now offering
life? The answer is simple: what we perceived before was not real life but a
perception of life that in reality is totally inadequate in comparison to what
God is offering. How selfish are we if we actually exercise our will to refuse
what is being offered by our God? Yet is happens a lot and that is where misery
and dissatisfaction starts.
When we begin to explore our relationship with
God and accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God an immunity of sorts develops
that gives us the spiritual strength to resist the forces around us that oppose
God and resonate from the evils of the world which have their roots in Satan.
This is progressive and becomes stronger over time. In the beginning we might
find ourselves weak and lacking in areas but through vigilance and a right
relationship with God and Jesus Christ being our guide we will find ourselves
becoming stronger and more vigorous over time. This is part of the renewal
process: acknowledging our weaknesses and working on them. We are all works in
progress. When we start recognizing the results and the small victories then we
will be lead to greater victories over our earthy existence whereupon the
spirit within us will conquer all that is material and has originated from this
fallen world. Perseverance and an acceptance of God is all that is needed for a
new life where we are new creations all of the time. The Apostle Paul testifies
to this in his letter. There is nothing that can oppose us or stop us when we
do things through and by God with Jesus Christ as our guide and mentor. When we
understand this then we are able to clear the way for the entrance of the Holy
Spirit, the Love of God, to come into our hearts.
The
Feeding of the Five Thousand is one of the great miracles of Jesus during His
ministry on this earth. Here, He fed all the peoples present spiritually. Through
His words they were renewed and transformed by the experience. They set aside
their physical needs to be enriched by His words and were completely satisfied.
Jesus Himself at the time was in mourning, withdrawing from everyone to process
the death of John the Baptist and possibly even fearing for His own life. Yet,
when the crowds came He set aside His earthly emotions, including His own needs
and wants, to minister to the crowds that gathered around Him. It was His
disciples who urged Him to dismiss the crowd so they could go to neighboring
villages to seek something to eat. Jesus refused and provided them sustenance
through the multiplication of the loves and fish. This brings us back to the understanding
that when we put God first in our lives and are guided by our spirit then
everything else will be provided for us. There is no need to have any anxiety
and fear as long as we are in communion with God.
Further taking the Miracle of the Feeding of the
Five Thousand in a completely spiritual sense this also becomes a precursor to
the Institution of the Eucharist. Through our relationship with God and the
acceptance of Jesus Christ we are offered spiritual food through the Eucharist
that enables us to bind ourselves to Jesus Christ physically, mentally, and
spiritually. We become empowered by receiving it. Where we were weak we then
become strong, protected, and loved all the while having the opportunity to
experience the true presence of Jesus Christ fully and completely. There then
becomes nothing to fear and nothing to worry about.
Every moment of our lives we are invited to come
forward and be refreshed by the presence of God in our lives. As Christians and
inheritors of God’s Eternal Kingdom we are guaranteed guidance, protection,
love, and a wonderful life experience. The invitation is given. The invitation
has been offered. It is up to us to accept it without reservation.
Deacon Tom
This note is struck in First Reading, Isa 55:1-3. To the Israelites, who have known such a miserable existence during the Exile, the prophet holds out a vision of the messianic age (note the ‘favors promised to David’). While the corn, wine and milk that is freely offered may refer in first instance to these foods in a material sense, the invitation to ‘come to the water’ echoes language associated in other parts of scripture with divine Wisdom (Proverbs 3; 8; Sirach 4; John 7:37-39).
This suggests that what is really on offer is a divine enhancement of life for which, in the depths of their being, most people thirst. All forms of spirituality, all techniques of prayer, seek to tap this source of life, which is the gift of God alone and which, like a perpetual spring of water, is freely given.
GOD’S GENEROSITY
The episode of the Multiplication of the Loaves that forms the Gospel, Matt 14:13-21, looks backwards to biblical traditions about God’s generous provision of food, such as the manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16; Numbers 11) and the multiplication miracle of the prophet Elisha (2 Kings 4:42-44); it looks forwards to the gift of the Eucharist and, ultimately, to the final banquet in the Kingdom of God, of which the Eucharist is both foretaste and symbol.
Herod’s execution of John the Baptist (Matt 14:1-12) has highlighted the danger in which Jesus himself now stands. So, he seeks to withdraw, going by boat to a lonely place. The people, however, thwart this move, gathering in large numbers to meet him as soon as he steps ashore.
In Matthew’s account what they particularly seek from Jesus is healing (in Mark 6:34 he ‘teaches’). When, despite his desire to withdraw, he accedes to their needs, they show no inclination to disperse. So, the disciples, functioning rather like ‘minders’ attached to a celebrity, urge him to send the crowds off to nearby villages to buy provisions for the night.
Jesus reacts to the word ‘buy.’ He will not send people away to buy anything – nor should his disciples (see the First Reading): ‘There is no need for them to go; give them something to eat yourselves’. When the astonished disciples point out that they barely have enough for themselves (five loaves and two fish), Jesus freely provides more than enough food for the whole multitude through the miracle of the multiplication.
THEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE
This is one of the more difficult miracles of Jesus to explain in terms of what might have ‘really happened’. Preachers are probably wise to keep away from such speculations – ultimately fruitless since we simply haven’t got sufficient information to ever know for sure. The fact that the tradition appears no less than six times across all four Gospels (twice in Matthew and Mark; once in Luke and John) points to its theological significance in the early Christian tradition. It is on this that we should chiefly focus.
Central to the theological significance is the way in which the episode anticipates the institution of the Eucharist. Jesus’ gestures – ‘taking (the loaves)’, ‘blessing’, ‘breaking’, ‘giving’ – foreshadow those at the Last Supper (Matt 26:26). The Evangelist expects that readers will understand that when they participate in the Eucharist they are experiencing the same divine hospitality that the Galilean crowds in this ‘lonely place’ experienced from Jesus.
Instead of having to go off and ‘buy’ provisions, God satisfies their hunger in abundance (‘all ate as much as they wanted’). The twelve baskets of left-over fragments highlight the abundance. Even the final comment about the non-inclusion of women and children in the reckoning, grating as it is to our more gender-inclusive ears, by enhancing the number of people fed, reinforces the same sense of abundant generosity.
FORESHADOWS THE EUCHARIST
The miraculous feeding and the Eucharist which it foreshadows make clear that what God wants to do for humanity is simply be a most generous Host at the banquet of eternal life.
At the same time, since it depicts people being fed with real food, it is also ‘sacramental’ in the sense of bearing directly upon the problem of hunger still affecting so large a proportion of our world. The Lord who looked on the large crowd and took pity on them, looks with similar eyes upon our world and instructs us, as he instructed his disciples, ‘Give them something to eat yourselves’.
In the words of Pedro Arrupe, ‘The Eucharist will never be complete so long as people still go hungry in our world’.
The Second Reading, Rom 8:35, 37–39, taken from the conclusion to Paul’s splendid eighth chapter of Romans, certainly merits mention but hardly needs explanation.
FATHER BRENDEN
How hungry are you? In the readings today we meet both physical and spiritual hunger. For sure we must eat physical food to go on living. We need to understand that real people need to eat and cannot live just on spiritual longings. On the other hand, many people get so caught up in their physical desires and needs that they effectively block spiritual hunger for long periods of time in their lives. Some people would even claim never to have had spiritual hunger.
For those of us who are aware of our spiritual hunger, there is a challenge to find the food that will help us live spiritually. Even if we have had many years in the Church, we can still ignore our spiritual hunger and get caught up in other realities.
The Prophet Isaiah today, in our first reading, is speaking to people who have known the revelation of God, whose ancestors encountered the living God. Yet all of these people have gone astray in spite of these experiences. Some of us have had spiritual experiences and then forgotten them or ignored them or have not pursued the reality present in those experiences.
The reading from the Letter to the Romans today assures us that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. We can personally choose against that love yet Christ continues to love us. Many of us spend great parts of our lives choosing against that love, and finally we might recognize a spiritual hunger in ourselves and begin to choose for love at least a bit less inconsistently.
Jesus wants to cure us and heal us. Jesus wants to feed us. Even in his days on earth, when He was tired and worn out and discouraged, Jesus still consistently chose to love us. This teaches us how to love as well and how to feed others. We are expected not just to eat, but to feed others.
So the readings today challenge us to see our own hunger, to begin to work with the hunger that is within us, to seek the Lord. Then we must open our eyes and our hearts and see the hunger all around us. Then we can begin to walk in the steps of our Lord Jesus and heal and feed others.
MONASTERY OF CHRIST IN THE DESERT
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