Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

I always wonder what the following words from Isaiah means to Catholics in those parts of the world where there is hunger and starvation.
“All you who are thirsty,
Come to the water!
You who have no money,
Come, receive grave and eat;
Come without paying and without cost,
Drink wine and milk!” (Is 55:1)

Or take the miracle of the multiplication of loaves (Mt 14: 13-21). I wonder if the starving people think why God does not multiply bread and fish for them today. If only a little food could be multiplied… The bread and fish for the multiplication came from the disciples who gave the bread that they had perhaps saved for themselves. In another gospel it was a little boy who offered the bread. In the gospels we often find that the human and the divine combined to make a miracle. Very often Jesus would say to the person whom he healed, “Your faith has made you well.” Human faith and God’s power can make miracles. In today’s episode of the multiplication of loaves human bread and God’s power come together to make a miracle.

In the world today, God can multiply food, but someone has to give the five loaves and the two fish. How blessed for the person who made the self-sacrifice so that Jesus could multiply the bread and fish. Can we be the ones who in faith can step out in self-sacrifice so that food can be multiplied? What can we offer to Christ today so that there are fewer hungry and starving people in the world? What can we offer to Christ so that no child will die of starvation?

How can we make this Eucharist meaningful for the world? How can we make this Eucharist meaningful for those in need. Bring your bread… make a self-sacrifice. Let us allow God to multiply food and drink. Please, let us give what we can, not out of your abundance but from our want, and be bread for the world.

- Fr. Satish Joseph