Monday, August 5, 2019
18th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading:
Num 11:4b-15
Gospel:
Matthew 14:13-21
On hearing about the death of John the Baptist, Jesus set out secretly by boat for a secluded place. But the people heard of it, and they followed him on foot from their towns. When Jesus went ashore, he saw the crowd gathered there and he had compassion on them. And he healed their sick.
Late in the afternoon, his disciples came to him and said, “We are in a lonely place and it is now late. You should send these people away, so they can go to the villages and buy something for themselves to eat.”
But Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fishes.” Jesus said to them, “Bring them here to me.”
Then he made everyone sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fishes, raised his eyes to heaven, pronounced the blessing, broke the loaves and handed them to the disciples to distribute to the people. And they all ate, and everyone had enough; then the disciples gathered up the leftovers, filling twelve baskets. About five thousand men had eaten there besides women and children.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Here are thought -provoking tips to lighten your day: “For attractive lips, speak words of kindness; for lovely eyes, seek out the good in people; for slim figure, share your food with the hungry” (Anonymous). But a slimmer body is only secondary to a Christian who feeds the hungry in exchange for heaven’s entry. He keeps in mind the Judgment scenario in the Gospel of Matthew where the only question asked is whether he had provided for the needy here below. Driven by his desire to win heaven, he gives the lion’s share of his food to the poor even when it would mean fasting now and then.
Heaven, however, is secondary to a Christian who truly loves God, convinced that God deserves all his love regardless of whether or not he gets heaven for a reward. Instead of taking care of the poor to get to heaven, he loves them in order to reach out to the Jesus in them. He reaches out not only when he can give the lion’s share but even when there is hardly anything to spare, inspired by today’s Gospel scene where five loaves and two fish fed more than five thousand men after God deemed it timely to intervene.
Because God’s counterpart is in good measure, pressed down and flowing over, no one is too poor to share. Poverty is a poor excuse, for one can always be magnanimous in bringing out the best from his neighbors. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M. Email: [email protected].
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