Scripture Readings: Book of the Prophet Isaiah 55:1-3; Saint Paul’s Letters to the Romans 8:35,37-39; Gospel According to Saint Matthew 14:13-21
The Scripture readings being offered to us this Summer Sunday are well worth looking at more closely and applying them to our daily journey to God.
The renowned Prophet Isaiah, writing some six centuries before the birth of Christ, presents a message of encouragement for those who have been in exile, far from their homeland, but now with the possibility of returning joyfully to what they know and love, having been deprived of it for many years.
Isaiah proclaims tremendously consoling words: “All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain to eat. Come without paying or cost, drink wine and milk.”
Returning from the Babylonian exile and enjoying God’s favor, the people will be filled with the necessities for survival. “Listen, that you may have life,” Isaiah underlines.
While a joyful message of ages past, how are we to understand Isaiah’s words today? What may sound to us like offers of a “supermarket sweep stake,” that is, simply material abundance, is not the point for us.
Yes, we all need food, shelter and clothing to live and thrive, but the Lord intends us to hear something other than material prosperity.
What we all really need is life in Christ, who satisfies our deepest hunger and desire for fulfillment. God’s gift is “priceless,” literally, because we don’t need to pull out a checkbook or a credit card to acquire all that God has in store for those who love him.
God’s abundant grace and blessings are free of charge and only require a willing and listening heart, attentive to God’s prompting at every moment in our life.
What our culture teaches as crucial, what we cannot do without, namely, health, wealth, beauty, popularity, is not what life is all about. In fact, they are the least important things, because in possessing God we have all we could ever hope for or imagine.
The Prophet Isaiah’s message from more that two and a half millennia ago is still valid and applicable to us of the twenty-first century, if we will stop, look and listen to what is most important in life.
Turning to the second lesson for Mass this Sunday, Saint Paul’s powerful words to the Romans should speak to our condition and encourage us along the path to genuine life.
Saint Paul emphatically states that nothing is capable of separating us from the love of Christ. Really? Yes, that is the truth of our religion. Only our own choices can damage or break our relationship with God.
If we choose God’s ways, though, Saint Paul says we are “more than conquerors because of him,” that is, Christ, “who has loved us,” at all times, in every situation.
As Christians it is imperative that we adhere to the Lord, through thick and thin, and even when our faith is put to the test, we must “never despair of God’s mercy,” as Saint Benedict reminds his monks chapter four of the Holy Rule, regarding the “Instruments of good works.”
This Sunday’s Gospel shows us Jesus willingly and wonderfully multiplying the loaves and fishes for the hungry disciples surrounding him. This scene hearkens back to what we hear from the Prophet Isaiah, that in the Lord we find all that we need for a satisfying life, on fire for the things of God.
The multiplied bread and fish, the staple evening meal of Galileans at the time of Jesus, will satisfy temporarily, whereas the “Bread of Life,” and the “Chalice of Salvation” which we receive in the Eucharist, will satisfy our deepest longings and be an experience God’s nearness and love.
In the Eucharist we are touched personally by the Lord, but we are never alone. Rather, we, though many, are truly united with all the members of Christ’s Church spread throughout the world.
Our belief as followers of Jesus is that the Lord cares for each of us, individually and collectively, at every moment of our daily life.
As such, no one is an island, but a participant in a huge multitude of believers, living and in heaven, who comprise the Mystical Body of Christ. This is meant to be an immense consolation in our life’s journey to God’s house.
The Lord has opened his hand to feed us, as he did for the people in the deserted place described in the Gospel and at every Eucharist we celebrate. All our needs are provided by our God. Because of that, we live in hope, confidence and joy, that we will never be abandoned by God.
“Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.” Prophet Jeremiah 17:7
“It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” Deuteronomy 31:8
“Stay with me, and do not be afraid . . . you will be safe with me.” First Samuel 22:23
Abbot Christian Leisy, OSB