18th Sunday in Ordinary Time – August 2, 2020

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time – August 2, 2020

18A20.   Isaiah 55:1-3.  The Israelites return from captivity, as a people bereft of the good things of the earth.  The Lord says come to the source of all good things “and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare.”  “Listen, that you may have life.  I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David.”  Life, that only the Lord can give, will flow back into his people.  God is always faithful to his promises.

Matthew 14:13-21.  “When Jesus heard of it, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.”  I think that Jesus felt the need to go the Father in prayer so to deal with the emotions he felt at the execution of John the Baptist, his cousin and precursor.  The crowds realized that he was headed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee and so got there by foot before Jesus did.  “When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them and he cured their sick.”  As God saw the need of the people in the first reading, so did Jesus in the gospel.  Jesus provided and continued to provide for their needs in his feeding of the five thousand from the five loaves and two fish.  In Matthew Chapter 15 he also miraculously feeds another four thousand.  These were all singular events whose object was to teach that he was the compassionate Messiah.  The bread he was to give was himself, so to give us spiritual life forever and not just physical life for the moment.

Romans 8:35, 37-39.  “Brothers and sisters, What will separate us from the love of Christ?” Any of the things of this world?  “No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.”  Nothing is “able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Although there are billions of people on this earth now, yet God’s love is immediately available to all who call upon him.  The only thing we have to fear is our unfaithfulness to God.  God demands that we respond to his love of us with our love of God of him and his will.   Life in this world is our opportunity to love our loving God.    Our rejection of his love surrenders us to a horrific future.  If each day throughout the day we actively seek to enjoy his love of us, we will become love as he is Love.