Sunday, August 03, 2014
18th Sunday
in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Isaiah 55:1-3
2nd Reading: Romans 8:35, 37-39
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)
Today’s Gospel on the multiplication of the loaves is all about sharing. It happened this way: Five loaves transferred hands. Each person was to break his share before passing them on to the next person. Imagine what could have happened if one person refused to pass the loaf to others out of insecurity!
Today the Lord continues to feed his people, this time with his own body and blood at the Eucharist. The first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah is an invitation to partake of bread without paying any amount. (Is. 55:1-3). True enough the body of Christ we partake of in the Eucharist is for free.
The multiplication of the loaves reminds us that Christ is also concerned about our material needs. But he does it systematically by channeling his grace through others. The way it goes, the system operates within the framework of the commandment of love. This makes the system vulnerable to selfishness. Selfishness clogs God’s channels of distribution and the end-users of God’s grace languish in misery.
Let us allow God’s grace to flow like a river by sharing our resources. Seeing us as potential channels of his grace, God will fill us to overflowing in good measure, pressed down and flowing over. God will multiply our resources more than he did to the five loaves of bread.—Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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