Give Bread And The Lord!

(Homily 18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr-A)

     The readings of this Sunday resonates the themes of God’s generosity and that of humanity in search. The generosity of God that invites His people gratuitously to the messianic banquet as revealed in the first reading. In the Gospel too we see the generosity of God revealed by Jesus Christ with the multiplication of bread and fish for the crowd, to satisfy their hunger and afterwards twelve baskets were left over, testifying that God is a God of abundance. And St. Paul in the second reading dwelt on the generosity of God’s love, manifested in Jesus. Indeed, it is as result of God’s unchanging love for mankind that He invites all to come and eat, without ifs and buts. We see it in the first reading that opens with the invitation: “Oh come to the water all you who are thirsty; though you have no money, come! Buy and eat; come, buy wine and milk without money, free!” (Is. 55:1). To this invitation we cannot but answer in the affirmative “Here I am, I am coming” (Ps. 40:7). What is this water and this mysterious food that God through his prophet invites his people to procure for themselves and to eat in order to satisfy their hunger and quench their thirst? God invited them to begin a search for what really matters. In the Gospel the crowd followed Jesus in search of something worthwhile. So the basic question for us today is: what are you searching for? But the consoling fact is that God in His bounty fulfills the deepest quest and search of man. He turns our search for food and drink to avenues for the manifestation of divine abundance. Therefore, let us reflect on our seeking, on what we hunger for and how Christ can satisfy it. He gives bread and the Lord.

      In the first reading (Is. 55:1-3) from the Deutro-Isaiah, an anonymous prophet, who according to tradition is believed not to be Isaiah addressed the Jews deported in Babylon, who were gradually losing trust in the Word of God, in His promises of protection and liberation. Having lost the hope of returning to their own land, a good number of them went in search of good fortune and well-being in the strange land, forgetting God and His Word. To them therefore, the Prophet reminded that the Word of God does not fail or disappoint, as often as it happens with the words of men. His Word is solid and efficacious always: “The grass withers, the flowers fades, but the word of our God remains forever” (Is. 40:8). Little wonder, the prophet tells us in the subsequent verses after today’s passage thus: “Let the wicked abandon his way and the evil one his thoughts” (Is. 55:7a). And in our present passage, the prophet called back the attention of the exiled Jews and urged them with the following words: “why spend money on what cannot nourish and your wages on what fails to satisfy?”. These words are equally very much suitable to be addressed to us today. Today many struggle for material things, pleasure, power, luxury, fame and success at all cost. But these things are not enough to give consistence and meaning to our life. For this, the Lord through the words of the Prophet exhorts us with insistent love thus: “listen carefully to me, and you will have good things to eat and rich food to enjoy. Pay attention, come to me; listen, and you will live” (vv.2b-3a). He even promised to make an everlasting covenant with them in fulfillment to his promises to David (v.3b). God promised good things: water, wine, milk and rich food. They are all symbols of all that the Word of God can offer to man, and which He offers gratuitously: “Buy and eat; come, buy wine and milk without money, free!” (v.1). The Word of God is bread that gives life, it is water that quenches thirst, it is wine that cheers gods and men (cf. Judg. 9:13), it is milk that nourishes. In fact, today like yesterday, and forever, it will be so, because “sky and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Mk. 13:31).

    Furthermore, God seems to tell us that we human beings are fond of spending our resources and wealth for things that do not satisfy our hunger and do not quench our desires. Many a times we spend our life, resources and time in search of goals that cannot satisfy our deepest human longing, things that cannot give us peace, serenity and joy. Sometimes these longings are riches, pleasure and self-centered realizations. Instead today, God invites us to search for something worthwhile. And how are we going to embark on this search? As a matter of fact, in the passage of Isaiah’s prophecy there is response to that question: “pay attention, come to me; listen and you will live” (v.3). Thus, as emanating from our passage, the first thing to search for is the Word of God. This is the foundation of every human existence, as the sacred author rightly pointed out; the word is your life (cf. Deut. 32:47). Therefore, we need to listen and give the ears of our heart to the Word of God. Little wonder, the crowd was following Jesus.

     In the Gospel (Mt.14:13-21), with the miracle of the multiplication of bread and fish, Mathew offers us an illuminating proof of God’s generosity and love, a love that is compassion, comprehension and desire to help. A compassionate and generous love first of all, to the sick, that are being healed, and then towards the great crowd that followed Him on foot from the city to the desert to listen to His Word. He nourished them first with His Word and then satisfied their hunger. To some extent we may say that the desire of the crowd to follow Jesus and to listen to His Word occasioned the miracle. It is interesting to look at the singular facts surrounding the event: It was already late, the place was a desert, and the disciples thought it wise to call the attention of Jesus to the reality. However, they suggested to him to “send the people away, and they can go to the villages to buy themselves some food” (v.15b). This is what the human logic or common sense suggests. Many a times in similar difficult situations we have recourse to human logic, but let us not forget that there is the logic of faith, the logic of God. In turn Jesus forced them to action: “give them something to eat yourselves” (v.16). Imagine feeding thousands of persons! But the disciples replied immediately: “All we have with us is five loaves and two fish” (v.17). And Jesus told them “bring them here to me” (v.18). Lo and behold, the miracle took place! Jesus wants us to be Christians and a Christian community capable of sharing what we have in the spirit of solidarity and fraternal love with those in need. The presence of so many people mentioned in the gospel narrative: five thousand, not counting women and children is a manifestation of the inner hunger of mankind for the bread of Christ.

     Indeed, the passage of the Gospel revolves around the above-mentioned theme of being in search. The crowd followed Jesus to the desert in order to listen to his word. They searched really for the Kingdom of God. “Seek you first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these other things will be given you as well” (Mt. 6:33), they followed Him, searched and were fed. But unfortunately, the intensity of the desire for the ‘other things’ before the kingdom of God in our present age is a manifestation of the gradual relegation of God and the case of a misplaced priority. Today, people, Christians inclusive seem to have reversed the evangelical invitation and command: “seek you first the kingdom of God…and these other things will be given you” to “seek you first these other things and the kingdom will be given you”, that is for those who still consider it reasonable to add the kingdom, else the craving is to seek for the other things and them alone. As such, we may ask: does it really make sense to speak about the Word of God or to tell people to seek first the kingdom of God, when a good chunk of the world’s population is dying of hunger? Is it not a sort of insult or even sarcasm telling people that are struggling to survive from the clutches of hunger, thirst and diseases to seek first the kingdom?

     Frankly speaking, it will sound sarcastic and ridiculous, if we Christians were to stop only at the level of proclamation of the Word, if we do not imitate Jesus in today’s Gospel. He didn’t tell the crowd to go in peace, God will provide. Rather, he said to his disciples: “give them something to eat yourselves” (v.16). Jesus taught the disciples and in the same vein teaching us to shun the sin of indifference: “send the people away, and they can go to the villages to buy themselves some food”. The miracle began with their putting together what there was: five loaves and two fish. Interestingly, this sensibility of Jesus in this passage, reminds me of one our 19^th century saints of Charity: St. Luigi Guanella, who in his writings and concretely in all the parishes and centers of Charity he worked, insisted vehemently on the need of “giving bread and the Lord”. For him, preaching the Word, evangelization and charity are to satisfy both the spiritual and physiological needs of man.

     Drawing the issue further, this particular passage of the Gospel, ought to propel us to think towards the great number of the world’s population that has nothing to eat. And as a matter of urgency, we Christians are among those that have five loaves and two fish, we are to be sensitive to giving them out or sharing them with those who do not have. On the other hand, there are also those, Christians and non-Christians who have more than five loaves and two fish, today Jesus is saying to you: give them something to eat, dispose and share. Jesus in the desert multiplied bread and gave it to the disciples to distribute. In the same vein, till today Jesus continues to multiply the bread and fish of nature, but the gross danger is that only few persons are hoarding them, instead of sharing and distributing them to the present hungry crowd. And unfortunately, there are those that are dying of hunger. God maybe using you as a channel to reach to others, so do not hoard God’s gift and the blessings that should be shared with others. The Father through the Son gives and multiplies bread for us so that we can distribute to the brothers and sisters. He also becomes Bread for sustaining us in our spiritual sojourn and for our redemption. He is inviting us today not to close in our hands what He gives for all: His word, His love, His blessings and favor. Our God is a generous God. Indeed, the psalmist in our responsorial psalm re-echoes this ingenious and founded trust in God: “The eyes of all creatures look to you and you give them their food in due time. You open wide your hand, grant the desires of all who live” (Ps. 145:15-16).

     Thus, for the fact that there are those dying of hunger and struggling in so many ways to survive, should we stop preaching to the men and women of this age: seek you first the kingdom of God, or maybe to tell them to seek for arms and revolution before the kingdom? Indeed, let us not forget that at the time of Jesus, there were many situations of injustice and poverty. And He never told the people to go in search of arms. Instead, He told them to seek first the kingdom of God. Therefore, today more than ever, we need to repeat these words of Jesus: seek you first the kingdom of God. This is because from the kingdom of God, from the word of Jesus and his justice, men and women maybe propelled to open their hands, their clenched fists, and distribute to the crowd their bread and begin to fight for justice in the world. hands what He gives for all: His word, His love, His blessings and favor.    

      As a matter of fact, upon consideration of the objections of the modern man and the ugly realities that are present in our world, it behooves us to re-affirm that seeking the kingdom of God, His Word, putting them first before everything else, is not an alienation from the reality. It is not a way of denying the expectations of the poor and the hungry crowd; instead it puts us in the condition to give lasting response to their cries. Therefore, we need to continue to thirst for the Word of God, just like the crowd that followed Jesus even to the desert, even though they were tired and hungry, but they put Jesus and his message first in their spiritual scale of values. What comes first in your own spiritual scale of values? With the miracle of the multiplication, Jesus gives us anticipation or prefiguration of the miracle of the Eucharist, the miracle of the multiplication of the bread of the soul. In fact, on a closer look we see that the gestures and words are the same in the institution of the Holy Eucharist and the Miracle of Bread and fish: “He took the five loaves and fish, raised his eyes to heaven, and said the blessing. And breaking the loaves he handed them to his disciples” (v.19 cf. Mt. 26:26; Lk. 22:19). This reveals that Jesus gives us both the food of the body and that of the soul. He gives bread and the Lord (Himself).

     In the second reading (Rm. 8:35.37-39) St. Paul gives us formidable words of encouragement and exhortation. He affirms that our faith is substantially faith in the love of God revealed to us in Christ, a faithful love, which will never fail. In fact, St. Paul began with a question: “Can anything cut us off from the love of Christ—can hardships or distress, or persecution, or lack of food and clothing, or threats or violence…?” (v. 35). The apostle somehow takes us back to our initial discussion about seeking for the kingdom of God first or not. In fact, he is re-affirming that no matter any situation we find ourselves, we should be consoled because God has loved us with an everlasting love. So nothing can separate us from His love, not even hunger, injustice and death. And this love becomes bread to nourish our hunger that is why not even hunger can separate us from His love. It is indeed a strong bond established between us and God, that “nothing created; whatever will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v.39). This is as a result of God’s unchanging love, because God continues to love us even if we reject His love. St. Paul says “by the power of him who loves us” (v.37), so our love in and with Him ought to be so profound to the extent of not fearing any trial, anguish or persecution. With the conviction of being loved by God and by the help of His grace, we can come out of any trial and existential challenges “triumphantly victorious” (v.37) always. But it is quite unfortunate that many a times when we have to confront some difficulties and trials we easily give in to despair and begin to doubt the love of God for us and thus risk ending up in pessimism. The hit-track of St. Paul’s message here is that in Christ God has given us a concrete and convincing assurance that He loves us. However, it does not mean that the faithful is immune from tribulation and persecution. And being elated by this love, St. Paul elsewhere  posited that “the life that I am now living, subject to the limitation of human nature, I am living in faith, faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

     At the conclusion of our reflection on the three readings we discover that the message of salvation, the Good News of Christ is not exclusive rather inclusive. We see it in the invitation of God to all in the first reading; we equally see it in the feeding of the five thousand without counting women and children. In the same vein, St. Paul in the second reading reminds us of the inclusiveness of the love of God for us in Christ Jesus, and it is on the basis of this love that all were invited to the Messianic banquet in the first reading. As a matter of fact, while the first and second readings demonstrate the process of inclusion in God’s actions, the Gospel passage is not only about God’s action but also an invitation and a challenge for us to learn how to include and not exclude others. The words of Jesus to his disciples: “give them something to eat yourselves” are words addressed to us today more than ever. May God help us to open our clenched fists and learn from God’s generosity. Amen!

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)