INTRODUCTION
The central theme of today’s readings is that we have a God who takes care of our physical and spiritual needs without charging us any bills. He is generous with his gift even when we do not merit it. He only needs our cooperation. He shares his only Son with us as our Savior and our spiritual food, in Word and in Eucharist, thus preparing us for the Heavenly banquet when our days will be far spent. The invitation today is his initiative as we see in the first reading; and he is not ready to send us away until he has satisfied all our needs as we see in the gospel. It is through his invitation and our response that we can establish a communion with him in the concept of inseperability of St. Paul in the second reading.
FIRST READING: Isaiah 55:1-3
The first reading speaks of a meal in which the hand of the Lord prepares in wait for the returnees of babylonian exile. Exile experience is a phenomenon that often characterize the history of the Israelites. It was a usual way of serving their punishment as a result of disobedience to the voice of Yahweh their God.
The chapter 55 of the book of the prophet Isaiah concludes the Deutero-Isaiah or the second part of the book of Isaiah which bears prophesies of hope and liberation. The meal language used by the prophet is an invitation to the people to get ready to reconcile with their God and to reestablish communion with him. Isaiah affirms that it is God himself who takes such initiative. It is a free and unconditional reconciliation: “Ho everyone who thirsts come to the waters…come, buy wine and milk without money, without price…why do you spend your money for that which is not bread?” Infact the elements mentioned symbolically demonstrate the nature of relationship that God longs to have with his people:
WATER: in biblical terms is a source of life and salvation. Infact the greatest biblical explanation of the symbol of water in the life of the Israelites is the event of the crossing of the Red Sea. They were saved through the water that drowned their enemies.
WINE: often used as God’s wrath and judgment, but also as a symbol of joy and celebration which expresses God’s abundant blessing.
MILK: generally stands for purity, fertility and ‘wholesomeness’. The gift made of the promise land as flowing with milk and honey is indicative of this fact.
BREAD: symbolically goes beyond a universal food. In the life of the chosen people, it represents the relationship with their God. This could be noticed in the ritual of placing twelve loaves called the showbread or shrewbread on the altar at all times (Lev 24:1-9).
Thus, from this analysis we understand that God’s invitation is to give his exiled people the fulness of joy and salvation and to reestablish communion with them.
The prophet assures the people that their state of poverty is not a barrier to enjoying the bounty of their God. The concept of lack could be explained in line with captivity: “Come, buy, though without money…” But since it is the Lord himself who prepared the table of reconciliation then the “lack” must be grasped from the point of view of the spiritual because the separation from God through sin makes one live in spiritual poverty.
SECOND READING: Romans 8:35.37-39
St Paul summarises the message of the first reading and that of the gospel in the concept of ‘inseperability’. The apostle uses the concept to demonstrate the eternal love of God for his people-the God who invites his people to his table, a symbol of communion and unity.
Paul delivered this message in a context and atmosphere of uneasiness in the faith of the believers. The christian community of Rome who had their taste of suffering especially from the imperial persecutions must have questioned the essence of being a believer if one has to undergo repeated moments of suffering. Paul’s response to these came as a result of his own lived experience of faith in which he continually felt the love of God irrespective of the heinous moments of tribulation. Thus, he conceives tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, wickedness, peril, sword etc simply as earthly distractions and obstacles, and not as badges of condemnation or expression of God’s indifference. Infact, he references this in preceding verse pointing out that even Christ himself had to undergo these in order to enter his glory (v.34). Therefore, for the believer the acceptance of suffering and associating it to the suffering of Christ would simply mean transforming the badges of suffering into banners of victory.
The apostle links the concept of the inseperability of the believers from the love of God as a result of the suffering, glorious resurrection and continuous intercession of Christ before the Father (v.34). Thus, Paul concludes that the earthly sufferings are distractions that cannot overpower the love of God for the believer because the sustaining force is Christ himself who overcame suffering and death and by consequence, “in all these we are more that conquerors through him who loved us” (v.37).
GOSPEL: Matthew 14:13-21
According to the narrative, probably the motive for which Jesus decided to retire to a quiet place is because of the death of John the Baptist his cousin who was murdered by Herod the Tetrarch. But even previously in the chapter 13 of the same gospel of Matthew, we learn that he was openly rejected by his own people (13: 54-58). Hence, one negative experience to another might have given birth to the need to seek for a quiet place whereby he could have time to grieve, to heal as well as to prepare for the challenges ahead of him.
The gospel presents three actors:
1. The crowd that left the city in search of Jesus in the lonely place which in another term could be likened to a desert. Such environmental context has a theological meaning. It represents a place of encounter with the divine-a place of silence whereby freed from the noise of the world, the voice of the Lord could be heard, and the heart contemplates its creator. Matthew was very careful to underline that Jesus first provided the crowd with spiritual support and relief before the material food. He healed the sick (v.14). Instead of healing, Mark talks about the gift of the Word (Mk 6:34).
2. The disciples of Jesus approached him with such a human pragmatism. They asked the master to send the crowd away into the village to get food for themselves because the day is far spent. They were realistic enough to notice that the material need of the crowd is important because if it is not taken care of the spiritual benefits they’ve received could suddenly turn soar. The role played by the disciples goes beyond a sympathy. They interceded on behalf of the crowd. They placed the worry into the hand of the master; an attitude that demonstrates the true act of prayer. It simple tells that no matter how intuitive and intelligent and the capacity of mastery over situations one might have, it is always important to listen to the voice of the Lord before taking action. It is by listening to the Lord that what one thinks is the best solution is re-oriented, and that which is impossible is made possible. The disciples never thought about what could have happened to the people if they were to walk down the villages with empty stomach neither did they imagine that five loaves and two fish could ever be more than enough to feed the crowd. It is good to put it in the hand of the master first.
3. Lastly, the figure of Jesus is a spectacular one. Humanly speaking, he needed a precious time to think about the rejection he got from his people as well as to mourn the death of his cousin, yet he preferred to keep aside his own suffering so that he could attend to the suffering of others. Isaiah foresaw this Messianic character when he said, “yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing, ours were the sorrows he was carrying…” (Is 53:4).
This is the message of this passage, although often many are lost in giving a detailed reflection on the multiplication of the leaves and the fish thereby losing sight of the central message. The miracle of multiplication is simply an external manifestation. The passage is first of all an invitation to contemplate the mystery of the God who thinks for his people, the God who allows their problems to be his, and the God who relieves them from their human conditions and fills their lack gratuitously. This reconnects us to the message of Isaiah in the first reading: “Come, by wine and milk without money and without price”. Jesus refused that the crowd should go and buy food for themselves, thereby revealing himself as the true face of the Father who feeds his people free of charge.
THE IMMEDIATE CONTEXT
In today’s Gospel, Matthew intentionally contrasts two “banquets”: one hosted by Herod which resulted in the death of John the Baptist (Mt 14:1-12), and the feeding of a large crowd by Jesus near the shore of the Sea of Galilee (14:13-21). Herod’s banquet took place in an environment of scheming and arrogance and concluded with a murder. Prior to feeding the crowd that was following him, Jesus felt compassion for their needs and healed their sick. Herod’s banquet was held at a royal court. Jesus’ meal with this crowd was performed in a “deserted” place or wilderness. Jesus’ path to kingship was quite the opposite of Herod’s, which was littered with corpses. Jesus’ path to kingship was the offering himself on behalf of others (20:28). In Matthew’s account, this miracle happened right after the death of John the Baptist. Jesus’ forerunner was dead; he had finished his work, and so he died at the hands of Herod. John’s death foreshadowed Jesus’ own death at the hands of Pontius Pilate.
THEOLOGICAL CONTEXT OF THE GOSPEL
The gospel of Matthew was addressed to the Jewish converts to christianity. Thus, Matthew had this particular way of maintaining the judaic sensitivity which played a great role in making his message easy for his audience to understand. Just like the other evangelists, Matthew’s gospel was meant to affirm that the man of Nazareth is also true God and the promised Messiah to the people of Israel. Matthew placed the context of today’s miracle in a lonely place which could also be understood as a desert. In this way, he took his audience back to the memory lane of the experience of their ancestors, the wandering people of the desert after their liberation from Egypt. Such a miraculous provision of food reconnects them also to the famous miracle of the manna. Evidently, the Isarelites considered Moses as the greatest prophet in their history. It was through his intercession that manna was made available in the desert. But through the miracle of the multiplication of leaves and fish, Matthew presents Jesus as rather the greatest prophet sent to Israel, the New Moses who accomplished what the old could not. Hence, in the narrative, Matthew did not just present Jesus as an intercessor who looked up to heaven and blessed the loaves and the fish, he equally affirmed that he is God because he performed the miracle by himself.
ESCHATOLOGICAL MESSAGE
The crowd had to cross over to the other side before they could encounter Jesus. It demonstrates that the journey on this earth is a pilgrimage and that God can only be encountered definitively at the other side whereby he will set up a banquet for his people at the evening of their lives. The miracle took place at sunset which gives a sense of the end of earthly life and a participation in the great banquet of the Lamb (Revelation 19).
LIFE MESSAGE
God is so generous in mercy and love and continues to lavish them on us:
THE FIRST READING invites us to be conscious of the fact that when we lose our communion with the Lord as a result of our sins, we are wretched. But it equally assures us of God’s constant availability to alleviate our wretchedness and to refill our lives if only we are ready to accept the invitation to his table of reconciliation.
THE PSALMIST reaffirms the message of the first reading about the infinite generosity of God: “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing”.
ST. PAUL IN THE SECOND READING makes it clear to us that we are privileged to be in relationship with God thanks to the mediation of Christ. Thus, we are encouraged to know that nothing is worth comparing to the love of God and nothing is stronger enough to separate us from his love not even death because we are more than conquerors.
THE GOSPEL READING tells of Jesus availability at anytime and any place to welcome us but at the same time, we must make effort to look for him. No one encounters God by crossing of fingers. God is always present yet his presence must be discovered. We must move away from our cities and our comfort zones. Yes our God is often found through a lip of faith by crossing to the other side that is not often desired by the world because it is deserted and empty of worldly pleasures, yet it is there that we can get the desired satisfaction for our souls. The gospel equally call our attention to an important aspect of our faith that is, putting our trust in the hand of God when situations seems to grow bitter. The disciples lead us on this part. We must learn to report every situation to the Master even when we feel we have the idea on how to handle it. Through prayer we discover that what we think is the best solution is rather nothing compared with what God has in stall for us. Through prayer, that which is impossible is made possible. Who could ever think that five loaves and two fish would be enough to feed the crowd and still have excess left over. TAKE IT TO GOD IN PRAYER.
PRAYER
Feed us from the abundance of your goodness oh Lord, and let our lives be filled with your presence so that we may learn never to forget you even when troubles knock on our doors. Amen.
PAX VOBIS!
