Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
The word of the Lord is supposed to aid us, not flatter us. The false prophet Hananiah sought to proclaim a worldly hope. He tried to flatter civil leaders and even attempted (though failed) to flatter Jeremiah. In the face of Hananiah’s false optimism, Jeremiah continued to proclaim that the decisions of the leaders and of the people would have truly devastating results. Thus he fulfilled the prophets role: not to tell people there is no consequences for evil actions, but to offer the possibility of listening to the Lord and following a path of reparation and reconciliation. Jeremiah proclaimed a difficult path, but one that ended in hope. Hananiah had sought to reverse the Lord’s ways so as to puff up leaders and place all hope in this world.
The Lord in the Gospel again reverses worldly expectations. In the face of the disciples’ despair of caring for so many in need, Jesus cures and feeds the crowds. Jesus is not doing so to impress anyone. He does not do so to foster worldly dreams. The Lord’s love is given in this tangible way so as to encourage those in need to trust that God will take care of them, even when in the eyes of the world there is no hope. Let us pray to this Lord who feeds us with His own Body, to be prophets after His own heart: proclaiming that taking responsibility for our actions is the way to reconciliation with the Lord, and proclaiming that we can hope that the Lord wants to care for us in ways that the world cannot even imagine.