Happy Sunday!
DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Isaiah 55,1-3; Romans 8,35.37-39; Matt 14,13-21: 18th Sunday of the. Year, 2nd August, 2020)
This Sunday, the Gospel presents us with the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. We admire Jesus’ generosity, for he cares and provides for the needs of the people. Jesus had left the boat to retire to a deserted place: he was looking for a little peace of mind with the apostles after a tiring activity and ministry. But the crowd learnt about it and followed on foot. So Jesus, getting off the boat, saw a large crowd. Our spontaneous reaction in these cases would have been annoyance, because the effort to have a little time for calm has been thwarted. But, Jesus completely disregarded his plan. On seeing a large crowd, he immediately felt compassion and healed the sick. Feeling compassion is Jesus’ characteristic in the Gospels. He usually thinks about people's discomfort, needs, sufferings, and feels compassion for them. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus takes up twice the expression spoken by God through prophet Hosea: I want mercy, not sacrifice (Matt 9,13; 12,7). Jesus knows that the Heavenly Father is full of mercy, and he passes this compassion of God through his human heart, putting himself at the service of all the needy: healing their sick. Jesus comes to heal and give men joy and peace. When evening came, the disciples showed that they do not share this compassion of Jesus, that they reason in human form; they said to Jesus: The place is deserted and it is already late; dismiss the crowd to go to the villages to buy food. This is common sense reasoning: there are so many people, it seems impossible to provide for them all, and, therefore, the most logical thing to do is to dismiss all these people, so that they can fend for themselves and get out of trouble. The People came on their own initiative, now they can also leave and look for food in the villages. But Jesus does not agree with this natural way of reasoning; He said to the disciples: They do not need to go to the villages; feed them yourself. These words of Jesus inspired many saints, who, seeing the needs of the people of their time, instead of complaining or thinking only about themselves, took care to meet those needs, establishing dedicated religious Orders and Congregations to charity. "Give them something to eat yourself” is a phrase that each of us must feel as if it were addressed to us. When we meet people who are in need, if we want to be Christians, we must worry about them and do everything possible to remedy their hardships. The disciples remain disconcerted at these words of Jesus, because for them it is impossible to feed such a large crowd; they say to Jesus: We have only five loaves and two fish!. In the Gospel of John Andrew he adds: What is this for so many people? (John 6,9). Indeed it is nothing. Therefore, it seems that Jesus' order cannot be realised. But Jesus thinks differently; he says to the disciples: Bring them to me here. Then he orders the crowd to sit down; he takes the five loaves and the two fishes, raises his eyes to heaven and pronounces the blessing. Here we have an important and decisive element. Jesus does not stop at the horizontal level of many social works, but takes a vertical direction: he raises his eyes to heaven, that is, he puts himself in relationship with the heavenly Father; and pronounced the blessing, that is, give thanks to the Father. In fact, according to the Hebrew way of speaking, blessing God means thanking him. After the birth of John the Baptist, Zechariah blessed God, saying: Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel, because he has visited and redeemed his people (Luke 1, 68). We also in the Offertory during Mass thank the Father, saying: Blessed are you, Lord, God of the universe; from your goodness we received this bread ... The blessing addressed to God means thanksgiving. Jesus thanks the Father for the little he has available and, at the same time, for the much he will receive from his goodness. In fact, he is convinced of the divine generosity and, when he pronounces the blessing, he foresees that the Father will meet this uncomfortable situation and find a solution. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, who distributed them to the crowd. Everything happens very discreetly: there is no visible multiplication of the pieces of loaves, but everyone ate, and they were satisfied, and in the end, many more pieces of the five loaves and two fish that were available at the beginning were left over. Thus in the end, the manifestation of divine generosity became evident. The whole crowd was able to eat, thanks to the union of Jesus with the Heavenly Father, his prayer, the compassion of his heart and his generosity. This miracle is not only an event limited in time, but it has a very wide scope: it is a prefiguration of the Eucharist. Also at the Last Supper Jesus will take the bread, break it and, after pronouncing the blessing, he will give it to his disciples, saying: This is my body which is given for you; do this in memory of me (Luke 22,19). This means that this action of Jesus must be multiplied. Indeed, it continues to multiply today in an ever more abundant and generous way. Jesus came to heal our souls, much more than to heal our bodies; he came to feed our souls, much more than to satisfy a crowd hungry for material bread.
Today's first reading makes us think, precisely, of a spiritual food. The prophet Isaiah reports these words of God: O you who are thirsty, come to the water, let anyone who has no money come equally; buy and eat without money and, without charge, wine and milk. Spiritual food cannot be sold as material food: it is a gift from God, which is communicated in the Church through the sacraments and which nourishes souls, giving strength, light and inner peace. The Prophet states: Why do you spend money on what is not bread, your wealth on what is not satisfied? Why do we care so much about material things, and not enough about spiritual things? Listen to me and you will eat good things and you will taste succulent food. It is an invitation to welcome the gift of God, which is basically only one: the love that comes from him and that wants to transform our life. This love passes through the heart of Jesus and reaches us in our situations of spiritual need. It is a wonderful food that feeds us. We mostly do not think about it, but our deepest desire is to welcome the love of God. This is our vocation: we are made to be loved and to love, in union with God and Christ.
The second reading shows us the value and power of this love. Paul says: Who will separate us from the love of Christ? This love is a value that has been assured in, an absolutely, strong and imperishable way. The Apostle listed all the most serious and terrible obstacles: Tribulation, anguish, persecution, hunger, nudity, danger, sword", and concludes: In all these things we are more than victors for virtue of the one who loved us. Here we see what strength is contained in the love that is given to us by God through the heart of Christ. God's love for us is the absolute power of God who puts himself on our side to make us more than winners, to find the true solution of our problems. Whoever believes in God's love is truly free in the deep, free from everything. It is a force that overcomes all obstacles, which gives us the ability to transform all obstacles into an opportunity for progress in love.
Paul again affirms: I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither present nor future, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature can ever separate us from the love of God, in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We do not only receive this love passively from God, but it is the love that gives us the capability to love. This is the food we really need. In life there is no need more essential than this: to have the ability to love in all circumstances, to always find a solution of love for all difficulties and needs. Instead of going in the direction of selfishness, pride or mistrust and discouragement, with this food we can always find the light and strength to transform all situations, even the most negative ones, into good.
The depth of the meaning of the multiplication of the loaves is precisely this: God gives us food that nourishes the capacity to love, making us victorious and instilling in us the deepest joy, because there is no greater joy than that of loving in a generous way. +John I. Okoye
(graphics by Chukwubike)
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