The historical setting of the beautiful First Reading from the prophet Isaiah is the time when Israel is in exile. They are away from the fruitful land of the Covenant made by God with King David and the people. These chapters 40-55 from the prophet Isaiah are full of poems, promises and invitations to trust the same God Who formed that everlasting relationship with Israel.
These verses are taken from near the beginning of the final chapter of this part of Isaiah. The people are thirsty, hungry and feel abandoned. The prophet sings out this call to their imaginations to trust in the God of bread, water, wine and milk. These provoke even more thirst and hunger, but they also encourage hope in the One who claims to be faithful. They seem lost and unattended, but the prophet assures them that if they remain hopeful they will soon be bread-full, water-full and more faithful in responding to God’s loving care.
Today’s Gospel opens with Jesus withdrawing to a ‘lonely’ place with his disciples after hearing the beheading of John. We know that Galilee in those times was quite heavily populated and Jesus had become already a well-known figure. What was the reason for this withdrawal? It could have been to provide a period of rest and reflection for Jesus and his disciples, a time for the disciples to be taught by Jesus. However, a more obvious reason was to avoid possible danger after the execution of John the Baptist. This retreat is interrupted by a large crowd who come looking for Him. They bring sick people to be healed; his immediate reaction was one of deep compassion and he began to heal the sick. This contrasts with Mark’s version where Jesus’ compassion leads to teaching the crowds. The healing, of course, in its own way was a kind of teaching, as the teaching was also a kind of healing. Jesus’ aim was always to restore people to wholeness in body and spirit. That is the meaning of salvation. And when it grows late His disciples urge Jesus to send them all away. Jesus had seen them as the lost - like sheep without a shepherd and His heart was opened to them. The stage is set for the “Feeding of the Five Thousand.” The elements of the drama are familiar to us. The disciples have five loaves and two fish and though the disciples wanted Jesus to send the crowds to get their own dinner, Jesus commanded them to feed them instead. Jesus took what they have, blesses and distributes and miraculously there was enough for all and there were still left-overs as well.
If God really cares, why are so many needs still unfulfilled? Why is there so much hunger, so much loneliness, why are there so many without homes, without food, without education, without...? Can we really take the First Reading seriously? ‘Come to the water all you who are thirsty; though you have no money, come!’ Where does such a world exist? ‘Buy corn without money, and eat, and, at no cost, wine and milk.’ The next sentence is much more to the point. ‘Why spend money on what is not bread, your wages on what fails to satisfy’ -- especially if that money could be spent on bread for others to satisfy their needs. ‘Listen, listen to me and you will have good things to eat and rich food to enjoy.’ Yes, if we really listened to the Lord, especially to the Lord Jesus in the Gospel, we would discover that there are ways for everyone to have their needs satisfied in abundance.
St Paul can say in the Second Reading, ‘nothing can come between us and the love of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes, or being threatened or even attacked. These are the trials through which we triumph... For I am certain of this: neither death nor life...nothing that exists...can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord’.
Our readings teaches us three things today:
1. That God really cares about his people and that there is enough and more for everybody, only if we know or learn how to share generously to others;
2. That the ups and downs of life, whether they are spiritual, emotional, physical, or material, whether they are personal tragedies or natural disasters, are basically unavoidable but are in no way a contradiction of God’s loving care for his people. In fact, these things are in their own way necessary for us to grow in our awareness of where true peace and happiness lie;
3. That a great deal of God’s care and compassion devolves on our own shoulders. A great deal of the human suffering in the world has been caused by human agency and can be relieved by human agency. Jesus did not feed the crowd directly. He left that to his disciples. He still does. It is too easy to blame God, too easy to blame governments, too easy see these things as other people’s problems. But in realities they are also ours, they are mine.
This is the meaning of the Eucharist we are celebrating here today, namely, that as Christians we commit ourselves to share, to work with God in communicating his compassion to all. God is a caring person but, much of the time, he needs my co-operation to show people just how caring he really is.
Fr. Joselito Layug SSP
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