Sunday Readings
August 3, 2008 :: Eighteenth Sunday of the Year
Scripture
ISAIAH 55:1 — 3
The prophet welcomes all who are thirsty, hungry, and poor to come and drink, eat, and not worry about the cost. God is bountiful.
ROMANS 8:35, 37 — 39
Absolutely, positively nothing can or will ever seperate people from the love of Jesus, the Christ.
MATTHEW 14:13 — 21
Jesus is with a crowd of five thousand people, not counting the women and children. No shops are nearby for people to buy food, and the disciples have only five loaves of bread and two fish. But all the people eat well, and their leftovers fill twelve baskets.
THEME
Food and drink are always significant to people who are hungry and thirsty. That is why Isaiah uses those images when describing God’s bounty. That is why Jesus insists to the disciples that the crowd be fed. Jesus tries to withdraw from people, but he is overcome with pity when he sees them waiting for him as he steps off of the boat. Jesus’ love is great — we will never be sperated from it.
FOCUSING OBJECT
A basket of leftover bread pieces
REFLECTIONS
Before Jesus meets up with this crowd, he is actually trying to get away and be by himself, because he has just heard about the death of John the Baptizer. But as soon as his boat reaches the shore, thousands of people are waiting there for him.
• What do you think Jesus’ immediate thoughts are upon seeing this huge crowd?
• Why do you think the disciples suggest to him that he make all the people go away to find something to eat?
• Why do you think Jesus insists that the crowds be fed and not be turned away?
The disciples start with only five loaves of bread and two fish. Five thousand people are there, not counting women and children. Yet everyone eats their fill, and the leftovers fill twelve baskets.
• What is your attitude about leftovers? Do you see leftovers as an aged meal whose flavors have had more time to blend and improve? Or do you see leftovers as food that should have been thrown away?
• If you were poor and hadn’t eaten a meal for two days, would your attitude toward leftovers be different? If so, how?
CLOSING
If God were to appear to starving people, he wouldn’t dare appear in any form other than food.
— Mohandas Gandhi (Action 2000: C Cycle)
For complete Sunday reading go to http://www.usccb.org/nab/
In Touch With the Word: Lectionary-Based Prayer Reflections, by Lisa-Marie Calderone-Stewart (Winona, MN: Saint Mary’s Press, 2004).
Copyright © 2004 by Saint Mary’s Press, www.smp.org.
All rights reserved. Used with permission of the publisher.