By Martin MM, CSC –
Readings: Is 25: 6-10a, Mt 15: 29-37
Today’s liturgy reveals to us the total love and care of God for each of us. God not only heals the heart and soul of the people, but shows total care by caring for their physical needs too.
The Gospel reading is the perfect witness of this aspect which tells of the feeding of hungry people. We are all well aware of the hunger of people for whom there has been no miraculous feeding, dying of starvation in our modern, comfortable world. Sometimes, of course, there are moments of humane unity, when people know that, with good will, we could feed the world. Whatever we give will surely resemble the loaves and fishes in the gospel. When people share food and resources with strangers, they acknowledge our interdependence on one another. People in the poor countries have a struggle just even to survive for a day. But at times like the disciples, we ask, “How can we feed so many, with so little?”
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “To the poor man, God does not appear except in the form of bread and in the promise of work.” The Eucharist renews the wellsprings of our humanity by the story of a bread broken and shared for the life of the world. We must gather up the fragments so that nothing gets wasted. Global solutions lie beyond the power of our local parish, school, family and community, which is why we need to remember the lesson of the fragments. If we can put a little new heart into our efforts, that will be something worthwhile. If we can become conscious of our wastefulness, it may be the beginning of repentance.
Can we help those who are in hunger? Do our ministry/actions support some project to reach the unreached? If not let us ask the Lord to give us the competence to see the needs of the people and the courage to act upon it, so that our life would resemble the life of Jesus.
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