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eighteenth sunday
in ordinary time,
August 4
Isaiah 55:1-3; Psalm 145;
Romans 8:35, 37-39; Matthew 14:13-21
OUR GOOD NEWS: God meets all our needs, and sees us through difficult times.
God addresses his Chosen People, currently exiled and enslaved in pagan Babylon. He impersonates a water vendor hawking his precious commodity through the dusty streets. "Come! You who are thirsty! Here is water!" Paradox: a merchant appealing to the "penniless," insisting that they (we) "buy without money!" When God invites us, there is no bargaining and no money changes hands. He gives freely of life's necessities ("water") and of its abundance ("wine, milk").
The metaphor continues with a clearer hint of what is offered. Life can become a monotonous cycle of meaningless drudgery and distraction. We eat to work and work to eat, "spending our wages for what fails to satisfy." God has other plans, and Isaiah joyfully proclaims the divine invitation to a heavenly banquet. "Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare."
The concluding sentence explains why the whole audience is invited to "eat the finest" and "delight in delicacies." In God's Kingdom, everyone becomes king, sharing the "benefits assured to David." David had been uniquely blessed by God in spite of obvious sins and unworthiness. This shepherd boy eventually became the world's most powerful ruler and founder of an eternal dynasty culminating in Jesus. God's gracious covenant agreement, a commitment whereby he showered David with good fortune, is now broadened to include the entire believing community. Finally, the divine promise of "life" ("Listen, that you may have life!") takes on new and fulfilled meaning in Christ's resurrection which we share.
"The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs." Today's psalm is recommended for our prayerful reflection, listing reasons why we should praise God. Intoxicated with God, ancient Israel never tired of such praising. Indeed, our own prayer should be dominantly praise, instead of our tendency to over-stress petition. The first reading and psalm agree: God is like a caring mother, delighting in pleasing us and meeting all our needs. For our part, we need do nothing other than to accept this loving care with gratitude.
Allusions in today's Gospel (multiplication of loaves and fish) show how Jesus recapitulated and fulfilled the Old Testament story. The people here followed a new and greater Moses into the desert, where he fed them with miraculous bread. Jesus also showed himself greater than Elijah the prophet, who fed 100 men from 20 barley loaves and fresh grain, with "some left over." Five loaves sufficed for 5,000 men plus families, and 12 baskets left.
Jesus ordered the people to "take their places at table" (rather than "sit down"). Solemn liturgical language obviously reflects Eucharistic words of consecration: participles for subordinate actions ("taking ... looking up ... breaking"), main verbs describing principal actions ("blessed ... gave"). This same order appears in the formula of institution used at the Last Supper: "he took ... blessed ... broke ... gave." Matthew didn't imply that this miraculous feeding was a Eucharist, but invites us to see it as a type or symbol explaining the sacrament's meaning.
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