July 31, 2011
Liturgical Year A, Cycle II
Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
First Reading: Isaiah 55:1-3
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 145:8-9, 15-16, 17-18
Second Reading: Romans 8:35, 37-39
Gospel: Matthew 14:13-21
These readings can be viewed at http://www.usccb.org/nab/073111.shtml.
Reflection Questions
1. What is the significance – if any – of the numbers (5, 2, 12, and 5,000) St. Matthew uses in this passage? Consult a good Bible commentary, such as the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible by Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch.
2. If Jesus is so powerful, why do so many people struggle with trusting Him in the daily personal lives? Give examples of situations with which people have trouble trusting God.
3. Have you ever experienced a supernatural miracle? If so, how did you know that it was supernatural? Describe it. Why do you think that, here in the Third Millennium, we don’t see many supernatural miracles in our daily lives?
Gospel Reflection
Have you ever wondered if Jesus could really take care of all your problems, no matter how big or small they were? It is often easy for us to forget that Jesus is not just a good human being, but that He is the Second Person of the Trinity, God from all time, through Whom all creation came into being. Certainly the crowds in our Gospel passage wondered who Jesus was and what He could do for them. We read that Jesus had just gone through a personally traumatic moment, the death of His cousin, St. John the Baptist. Jesus takes some time to withdraw to a quiet place, but the crowds begin to look for him there. Have you ever tried to find some quiet time in a secret place, only to have one interruption after another? As the crowd came upon Him, St. Matthew describes them as being vast (we later read that there were at least five thousand men there, with perhaps 20,000 people total there). The crowd was about as big as a sold out NHL or NBA game. Then the problem shows up: The concession stands are without food. (Actually, I doubt they had concession stands there in the first place.) Imagine showing up to a concert, or a hockey or basketball game, and the people selling food said that there was no food to sell. You’d be angry, and demand that the concession stand people get food. Then imagine that you have been at a festival concert for days without food, and you were told that there would be no food coming: You’d be ready to panic. This was the scene in Jesus’ day: He saw that the crowd was hungry (very hungry), and that many of them were sick. He felt pity on them, meaning that he felt sad for them because of the situation they were in. The Lord doesn’t just walk away from their problems; He doesn’t just tell them to take care of it themselves; Jesus supernaturally provides for their material and physical well-being by curing the sick and feeding the crowd. Note that this was a miracle, in other words, the only logical explanation to how the people were fed is a supernatural explanation. God intervened to provide food for the people when the food did not naturally exist. The disciples weren’t hiding the food, nor did they run to the grocery store quickly, or make a drive-through run. Jesus worked a miracle, using the power that only He has to provide for the crowd. We take from this passage the fact that Jesus is concerned about our whole being, not just our spiritual being. Even when we go through struggles, sufferings and bad times, Jesus is there to give us the grace we need: He never abandons us. We also take from this reading that Jesus is the Lord of all, including our personal Lord. May we have the grace to trust Jesus completely with our lives, giving Him complete control and counting on Him to take us deeper in love.
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