2 August 2020
Eighteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time
“The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.”
Today’s readings are permeated with the notion of God’s desire to care, feed, and nourish us. Jesus prays by first looking up to heaven, and then gives the people their daily bread. Isaiah speaks of the Lord’s initiation for all to come to Him and be nourished; and the Psalmist reminds us of the reality of how our good God desires to feed us and answer all of our needs. But before we can be fed, must we not first be hungry? Jesus’ miracle of feeding comes about in response to the people’s hunger. Jesus’s heart was moved with “pity” for them. The Greek here is much stronger, it is not just pity, but rather a gut-wrenching longing for the crowd in light of their needs: sickness, hunger, and longing to be led to God. Jesus’ miracle is drawn forth from this place of deep compassion he feels for the crowd and their needs. The people are fed in response to their hunger and their need. Sacramentally, the Church is beginning to emerge from a time of fasting due to the global pandemic. How has this time of fasting from the Sacraments been creating in you a hunger for the Lord? How has this time discomfort, anxiety, or pain in this time of distance, sickness, or loss revealed a deep need and longing within us? How might Jesus’ heart still be moved today with a gut-wrenching longing to be with you and me? St. Paul reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love of God – not even a pandemic. Nothing can separate us from the gut-wrenching love that Jesus has for us and his longing to feed us. Jesus desires to give us our daily bread, both physically and spiritually. How he does this may surprise us. Let our prayer today open our eyes to both our hungers and longings and also the ways the Lord might be feeding us in unexpected ways.