YOU GIVE US OUR FOOD – claretonline

EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

August 2, Monday

The first reading in the 18th and the 19th weeks is taken from the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy. It describes the journey of God’s people through the desert, with the trials of the difficult journey, the temptations of discouragement, lack of faith and trust, material and materialistic needs, infidelities, complaints. We have to learn to place them in the context of our own itinerary through life as Christians, our own deserts with temptations, difficulties and grumbling.

We know that an immense number of people in many places of the world have not enough to eat today. Many others have plenty to eat, and yet they are hungry, for people do not live on bread alone: they are in need of peace and love, they hunger for justice and appreciation; they are in need of God. We, Jesus’ disciples today, cannot remain indifferent to these hungers, for Jesus has told us: “Give them something to eat yourselves.” If we share the little we have, the kingdom of God is among us.

First Reading: Numbers 11:4b-15

The riffraff among the people had a craving and soon they had the People of Israel whining, “Why can’t we have meat? We ate fish in Egypt—and got it free!—to say nothing of the cucumbers and melons, the leeks and onions and garlic. But nothing tastes good out here; all we get is manna, manna, manna.”

Manna was a seed like substance with a shiny appearance like resin. The people went around collecting it and ground it between stones or pounded it fine in a mortar. Then they boiled it in a pot and shaped it into cakes. It tasted like a delicacy cooked in olive oil. When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna was right there with it.

Moses heard the whining, all those families whining in front of their tents. God’s anger blazed up. Moses saw that things were in a bad way.

Moses said to God, “Why are you treating me this way? What did I ever do to you to deserve this? Did I conceive them? Was I their mother? So why dump the responsibility of this people on me? Why tell me to carry them around like a nursing mother, carry them all the way to the land you promised to their ancestors? Where am I supposed to get meat for all these people who are whining to me, ‘Give us meat; we want meat.’ I can’t do this by myself—it’s too much, all these people. If this is how you intend to treat me, do me a favor and kill me. I’ve seen enough; I’ve had enough. Let me out of here.”

Gospel: Matthew 14:13-21

When Jesus got the news, he slipped away by boat to an out-of-the-way place by himself. But unsuccessfully—someone saw him and the word got around. Soon a lot of people from the nearby villages walked around the lake to where he was. When he saw them coming, he was overcome with pity and healed their sick.

Toward evening the disciples approached him. “We’re out in the country and it’s getting late. Dismiss the people so they can go to the villages and get some supper.”

But Jesus said, “There is no need to dismiss them. You give them supper.”

“All we have are five loaves of bread and two fish,” they said.

Jesus said, “Bring them here.” Then he had the people sit on the grass. He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread to the disciples. The disciples then gave the food to the congregation. They all ate their fill. They gathered twelve baskets of leftovers. About five thousand were fed.

Prayer

God, our compassionate Father,
you let your Son Jesus Christ give food
to all who are hungry in any way.
Make us compassionate for all the poor of our day.
Teach us to see their needs,
to suffer with them, to share in their anguish,
to bind their wounds and to appease their hungers.
Give us the strength to do all this
by the strength of the food of himself
that Jesus gives us in each eucharist.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Reflection:

Running away is not an option

To run away from disturbing and frustrating life situations is a natural human tendency. When faced with a burdensome relationship, setbacks in professional life, our natural reaction would be to run away from them. This is what we find in the response of the disciples in today’s gospel: That the crowd was too large and, time was too late and they were in a deserted a place – they did not want to take up the burden of finding food for all those people. So, they suggest to Jesus: Dismiss the crowds and let them find food for themselves. It looks quite normal to us, because the disciples are our representatives, who think and behave like us. While explaining the passage in the Gospel according to John, Fr. Armellini said, Jesus sees the multitude, he sees the needs of the hungry; and he gives a clear invitation to his disciples as well to look up from our little world, from our interests, and become aware of the reality in which so many of our brothers and sisters who live in hunger, in misery, who are desperate, and suffer violence. This is not the world that God wanted. Jesus has seen the hunger of humanity; hungry not only of food, but of all the needs that must be satisfied to be fully human. The life of the sick person is not fully human, neither is the life of the lonely, the abandoned, the one who lacks affection, the one who faces injustice, the one who has no home, no job, the one who cannot form a family. How to respond to all these forms of hunger so that humanity be satiated? That’s why the disciples suggest to Jesus: It is beyond our capabilities to handle. Ask these people to go away and buy their own food. Sending them away would be our safest option, so that we don’t have to worry about where would they find food, at what price, would there be someone who could not afford to buy; would there be people who would buy more and store up their tomorrows and thus there would be no more food for others to buy… Material goods are a temptation; our instinct tells us to take possession of them, to accumulate them, to keep them for ourselves, at most to share them with our family members, but then, even in the family, when it comes to money, divisions and disagreements begin. The first letter to Timothy says that the greed of money is the root of all the evils in the world. Today’s miracle of feeding the 5000 teaches us one simple truth: The wealth or treasures that we have in our hands do not belong to us. Everything belongs to God, and we are administering goods that are not ours.

Video available on Youtube: Running away is not an option

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