18th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Feeding One Another

The more we reflect upon the ways of God with us humans, the more it becomes clear that God really does trust us and really does want us to become resourceful and responsible persons who do not sit and wait for someone else to solve our problems.  At the same time, it is clear that many of these problems are well beyond our abilities, particularly when our motivation is centered in ambition and pride rather than in real concern for the welfare of others.

Life is full of anxieties and worries and the voice of the Gospel is so easily drowned out by the clamor of commercials that tease us into buying much more than we really need, by the promises of security proclaimed by everyone from politicians to insurance agents to software vendors and by the persistent whispers and warnings that come from our deep-rooted instinct for self-preservation.

It may be true that our resources are hopelessly inadequate and that we may literally have only “five loaves and two fish.”  In today's world, the people don't need anything to remind them that they are hungry.  But one’s strength grows immeasurably in the presence of God.

The Gospel speaks a powerful message.  Jesus tells his disciples: “Bring me what you have, the fives loaves and the two fish - whatever. Let’s put that together with what I have and then let’s see what happens.” Jesus extends this same invitation to us. When we have to face something that seems to be impossible in our life, he invites us to join our resources.

The miracle of the loaves and fish appears in all four of the Gospels. Matthew's version of this story shows that the early Christian community continued to find new levels of symbolism in this miracle.  The gestures of Jesus, the focus on the bread rather than the fish, and the careful collection of the fragments, have strong Eucharistic overtones.  And Matthew highlights the role of the disciples throughout the whole episode.  They are important mediaries, who distribute the bread and gather the leftovers.  The disciples share in Jesus' ministry.

We all live from day to day, trying to be ready for whatever comes. But there are always challenges that seem to demand much more from us than we are able to give - family sickness, troubled children, ailing parents, stress and failure on the job, crime, drugs, and the violence and terror of the world around us.  All too often it seems we just about overcome one set of difficulties when a whole new and unexpected series of events meet us. Sometimes we don't seem to have the strength to keep coping. How often our journey becomes tiring and discouraging! We can lose heart. We can give up, sometimes at the brink of despair.

In the midst of this, we hear Jesus tell His disciples: "Go and feed them yourselves..."  The Eucharist is not simply the presence of Jesus in our midst, satisfying our every need.  Christ is present to us in order that we might be present to others. He feeds us so that we might be empowered to feed one another, to serve one another and be energized in a way that we could never be of ourselves.

Only then can we get up and find within ourselves the strength to persevere on our journey, and to help others on their own unique journey of faith.