SELECT HEREfor the Audio recording of the Readings of Sunday, August 2nd, 2020, Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
SELECT HEREfor the Readings of Sunday, August 2nd, 2020, Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
A Sunday Mass Story
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Sunday, August 2nd, 2020, Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
All you who are thirsty,come to the water! You who have no money,come, buy grain and eat; Come, buy grain without money,wine and milk without cost!
The word ‘essential’ has never meant so much as it has during this time of the pandemic. Who of us has not thought about the ‘essential things on life’ or the ‘essential people’ in our lives, essential services or needs or the ‘essential worker’ (‘Essential’ meaning here – the necessary, the indispensable or the un-avoidable)? What might the word ‘essential’ mean for you?
The word of God (readings) this weekend presents before the listener an image of God who always, constantly and consistently calls, invites, leads, risks, begs us to find in Him, the ‘essentials of life’ that truly satisfy our hungers and thirsts. Having God’s grace and being ‘rooted’ in Him gives all access to the ‘essentials of the Kingdom’. And God will even risk everything to make sure we understand this.
Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what does not satisfy? Only listen to me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. Pay attention and come to me; listen, that you may have life. Isaiah 55: 2-3.
The target audience of the prophet Isaiah in the First reading are an exiled community that have given up on living. They think God is not interested in them. But No! Their God is a God who is life giving, a God who seeks to renew his covenant with them. He will give them the ‘essentials’ that money cannot buy: ‘water’, ‘grain’ and ‘wheat’ (symbols of Life in the Scriptures). God will even add an extra – ‘wine’ and ‘milk’ (superfluous items of abundance). All that the Israelites must do is to turn to Yahweh, heed to his invitation.
Who are those who ‘thirst’ and ‘hunger’ today? For what do they thirst or hunger? What truly satisfies?
Jesus in the Gospel is tired and worn out. He withdraws in a boat to a deserted place by himself. Yet, even there people track him down on foot. He disembarks and sees the vast crowd. He is ‘moved’ with compassion. Jesus does not let anything that frustrates or oppresses the human spirit prevail. He immediately takes care of them. As it gets dark, the disciples get into a back and forth with him:
“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.”(Matthew 14: 15). Jesus replies: “there is no need for them to go away’, find food for them yourselves”. We only have five loaves and two fishes’; he says ‘bring them to me ‘. Jesus goes on to perform a multiplication of loaves that feed five thousand.
What is the point of the Gospel? In Jesus, we see one who possesses the ‘word of life’. He is life and the giver of life (healer and restorer), but there is more- for Jesus the life of the other matters. It is what ‘moves’ him. The Life of the one in the ‘dark’ especially matters. He will risk to share even the little that they too have life. For Jesus, ‘to live; is to let live. This is his mission!
What then will make us true followers of Christ? Be like Jesus, Be imitators of Christ. Risk that another may live. Be restless that Life may be for all. The challenge is not to be like the disciples who want to obscure others from Christ. They seclude themselves from the plight of others, they do not ‘see’ and are not ‘moved’ by the crowd. The little they have is for them. (They are concerned about them and no one else.)
There is an uncomfortable clarion challenge to us, the modern day listener, to be like Christ- live for more than oneself, to find fulfillment in reaching out to others, helping others and working towards a common goal – that all may have life. To live is to let live. Where is this call most urgent today? How can we be ‘food and drink’ (the essential) for others who need life? In a world beset by individualism and self care(concern), the temptation to be like the disciples is an easy trap.
Have a Blessed week in the Lord!
Fr. Anthony
View the below videos for other reflections on the readings.