Monday of the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time

Lectio

    Matthew 14:13–21

Meditatio

“… give them some food yourselves.”

    By placing this rural event right after his flashback to the martyrdom of John the Baptist, Matthew achieves a stark contrast. Two banquets are portrayed—one in a fortress, attended only by the elite and featuring sensuality and death; the other in the open air, attended by anyone/everyone and featuring healing and life. The multiplication of the loaves is more or less the midpoint in a long trajectory that began with the manna in the desert and continued with the multiplication of barley loaves by the prophet Elisha. The scene in the hills of Galilee looks forward to the Last Supper and the Church’s Eucharist, as well as the heavenly banquet mentioned in Isaiah 25:6 and Matthew 8:11–12.

    Rereading this passage, I was drawn to Jesus’ command to his disciples: “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.” The disciples show Jesus the little food they have. Acting in the role of the father of a Jewish family, Jesus takes the bread, says the blessing, breaks the bread, and hands it back to his disciples to distribute. Mysteriously, there is enough bread for everyone, just as in the future the divine-human presence of Jesus would be mysteriously multiplied in the Eucharist, so that all the faithful can be nourished with the bread of life.

    Thinking of the disciples’ role in this, I remembered reading or hearing more than once that our poor prayers, our half-hearted sacrifices, our small acts of kindness can be multiplied by the Lord, as if zeroes were being added to the number 1. We give our “little,” and the Lord makes that small contribution bear much fruit for his people. Jesus asks our cooperation, then he does the rest, just as he did with the disciples.

Oratio

    Lord Jesus, help me to remember the importance of my small contributions, whatever they may be. When overcome by “weariness in well-doing,” I want to keep in mind the disciples, who, until everyone had been fed, kept distributing the bread you had blessed and broken for the crowd. Help me to realize that the little I do has a much fuller meaning than I could ever imagine—a meaning I may never understand in this life, but will make me very happy in the next. Don’t let me get discouraged, thinking I’m not getting anywhere. Help me to move ahead with purer motives and a lighter heart. Amen.

Contemplatio

    “There is no need for them to go away.”

__

ORDINARY GRACE Weeks 18–34: Daily Gospel Reflections (By the Daughters of St. Paul)