Eighteenth Sunday in
Ordinary Time
August 3, 2014 Cycle A
by Rev. Jose Maria Cortes, F.S.C.B.
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In the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today’s Gospel tells us that when Jesus disembarked from his boat, seeing the people waiting for him on the shore: “[…] His heart was moved with pity for them” (Mt 14:14). In a different passage, Matthew writes: “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd” (Mt 9:36). A sheep without a shepherd has no hope. Sheep are not able to find the food and water they need. Only the shepherd knows where to find the green pastures and fresh water that can satisfy the sheep’s hunger and thirst.
The prophet Isaiah asks: “Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy?” Doesn’t this question also apply to the present? A sheep without a shepherd is only able to graze on the grass nearby. However, in order to get enough to eat, the sheep has to go further, beyond the valleys and hills, but only the shepherd knows the way.
We need to distinguish between small desires and great desires. In our times, we live under the dictatorship of small desires.
The hedonistic culture of our times equates the fulfillment of life with the satisfaction of small desires. Nevertheless, people are still unsatisfied. They think the happiness they pursue will come when people’s mentality changes, when the state changes the laws in order to allow what it is still prohibited. All the ideology behind the so-called “new rights” proclaims that the happiness of the individual would be fulfilled if laws were changed and rights guaranteed to all. There are many examples of these new rights: the right to marry, the right to adopt, the right to have children, the right to die with dignity, the right to consume soft drugs etc. The mentality of the “new rights” is a mentality that does not accept God as our creator and guide but considers the individual as the sole criterion.
People are looking for happiness, but they are doing so like sheep without a shepherd. As Jesus was moved with pity for the crowds before him, he is certainly also moved with compassion today for the crowds of our times, the crowds of the “new rights,” the crowds who are confused about the meaning of life.
Jesus wants to feed us. He wants to give us the bread and water that we really need. Christ wants to satisfy the profound needs we have in our hearts. The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish is a sign of the infinite love that God has for us, the infinite desire that God has to feed us.
Nowadays, there are many obstacles to evangelization. In general, people no longer seem interested in their eternal destiny. However, we can exclaim with Saint Paul: “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution? […] in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.”
What does it mean to be fed by God? To be fed by God means to experience God’s love, to experience that God knows us, chooses us and wants a destiny of happiness for us. Being fed by God is the acknowledgment of being loved with an infinite love.
Today’s Psalm says: “You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” God answers all our needs and “is near to all who call upon him.” Let us ask for the grace to experience being loved by God.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.