August 2, 2026
Eighteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 112
Reading 1
Thus says the LORD:
All you who are thirsty,
come to the water!
You who have no money,
come, receive grain and eat;
Come, without paying and without cost,
drink wine and milk!
Why spend your money for what is not bread;
your wages for what fails to satisfy?
Heed me, and you shall eat well,
you shall delight in rich fare.
Come to me heedfully,
listen, that you may have life.
I will renew with you the everlasting covenant,
the benefits assured to David.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (cf. 16) The hand of the Lord feeds us; he
answers all our needs.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
The eyes of all look hopefully to you,
and you give them their food in due season;
you open your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
Reading 2
Brothers and sisters:
What will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?
No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly
through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities,
nor present things, nor future things,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
One does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist,
he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.
The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns.
When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick.
When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said,
“This is a deserted place and it is already late;
dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages
and buy food for themselves.”
Jesus said to them, “There is no need for them to go away;
give them some food yourselves.”
But they said to him,
“Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”
Then he said, “Bring them here to me,”
and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves,
and gave them to the disciples,
who in turn gave them to the crowds.
They all ate and were satisfied,
and they picked up the fragments left over—
twelve wicker baskets full.
Those who ate were about five thousand men,
not counting women and children.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080226.cfm
Commentary on Isaiah
55:1-3; Romans 8:35,37-39; Matthew 14:13-21
The Gospel today opens with Jesus withdrawing to a
“deserted” place with his disciples. We are told that this happened on
receiving the news of John the Baptist’s execution. We know that Galilee in
those times was quite heavily populated and Jesus had become already a
well-known figure. What was the reason for this withdrawal? It could have been
to provide a period of rest and reflection for Jesus and his disciples, or a time
for the disciples to be taught by Jesus. However, a more obvious reason was to
avoid possible danger after the execution of John the Baptist. It is worth
noting that Jesus had no streak of recklessness nor did he go out of his way to
court opposition or suffering. Several times the Gospels record Jesus prudently
getting out of the public eye when things were getting too hot.
Deep compassion
However, on this occasion, Jesus and his companions were observed slipping
away. So while they made for the other side of the lake by boat:
…the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the
towns.
When Jesus stepped ashore, he was faced with a large crowd
of people. His immediate reaction was:
…compassion for them and [he] cured
their sick.
This Gospel contrasts with Mark’s version, where Jesus’
compassion leads to teaching the crowds. The healing, of course, in its own way
was a kind of teaching, as the teaching was also a kind of healing. Jesus’ aim
was always to restore people to wholeness in body and spirit. That is the
meaning of salvation.
We might reflect ourselves at this juncture on how we react
to sudden and unexpected calls on our time and energy. Are we always filled
with compassion for those who ask for help—especially if those asking are
strangers or people we do not particularly like? How many real opportunities
for bringing some wholeness into a person’s life have been lost because a
request was made in conflict with plans that I had made, not least religious
plans? (Remember the priest and Levite who ignored the mugging victim on the
road to Jericho because they were on the way to the Temple?)
There are two reactions possible to calls for help. On the
one hand, I can completely ignore such calls when they conflict with what I
have planned to do. In this case, I always put my own perceived needs first and
I am not going to put myself out for others. Once this gets known, you won’t
often be asked for help, but it is hardly the Christ-like response.
On the other hand, I may be one of those persons who cannot
say “no”. In that case, I put aside what I have planned and go to help the
person even though I do not want to do so, and I may feel highly resentful. On
the outside I will be all smiles while on the inside I am in knots of anger and
frustration. The final outcome of this kind of response is ‘burnout’. If I am
one of these kinds of people, it is very important for me to be seen as a
helpful person and I will make any sacrifice to preserve that image. Such
persons need to be needed, and deep down, they are answering their own needs
rather than those of another.
Obviously neither of these responses is appropriate and they
are not the ones that Jesus made. It requires great sensitivity and discernment
to know when we are required to show compassion by giving all the help we can,
even at some inconvenience, and when we show equal compassion by making people
stand on their own feet rather than resort to manipulating others in their
dependence. I am not responsible for saving the whole world. I will have to watch
many people going without my help. But there will be times when I am the only
person who can help this person now. Recognising these moments needs a
combination of honesty and firmness.
Give them something to eat
There are times, like today, when Jesus immediately responds to the people’s
needs. There are others when, in spite of their requests, he either withdraws
to a solitary place alone or goes elsewhere (see Mark 1:35-38 and John 6:15).
Another reason why we are often reluctant to give help is
that we think we have nothing to give. In today’s Gospel, as the day wore on,
the disciples became anxious about the crowd. They say to Jesus:
…the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they
may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.
But Jesus tells them:
They need not go away; you give them something to eat.
The disciples respond:
We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.
Jesus is teaching them self-confidence and urging them to
share the little they have. They will be surprised how far it will go. And if
we do the same, we can be pleasantly surprised too. Like the disciples, we are
called again and again to be mediators between Jesus and others, offering the
little we have with total generosity.
Jesus then took the bread and fish, raised his eyes to
heaven (towards God his Father), and said the regular Jewish blessing on the
food. He then began breaking the bread and gave it to his disciples to
distribute. Lo and behold:
…all ate and were filled, and they took up what was left
over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.
The twelve baskets clearly represent the twelve tribes of
Israel now under the twelve disciples who are part of the New Israel. They will
become the twelve sources of God’s generous concern for his people.
Matthew says that:
…those who ate were about five thousand men, besides
women and children.
According to some commentators, this means that there could
have been as many as 20,000-30,000 people present. They represent the people of
Israel being fed, echoing the manna and quail during the years in the desert
(see Exodus, chap 16) and the multiplying of oil and bread by Elisha (see 2
Kings chap 4).
The food that Jesus gives is a clear symbol of all our needs
being fulfilled, and fulfilled in abundance. And the miracle itself is a symbol
of the Eucharist, the sacrament of unity and sharing of the broken bread as a
sign of a community that shares and provides in abundance for the needs of its
members. Alas, our Eucharists are so often an empty symbol of the intended
reality!
Why so many hungry?
If God really cares, why are so many needs still unfulfilled? Why is there so
much hunger, so much loneliness? Why are there so many people without homes,
without food, without education, without many different basic needs? Can we
really take the First Reading seriously when it says:
…come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come…
Where does such a world exist where we are told:
…come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
The next sentence is much more to the point:
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread
and your earnings for that which does not satisfy?
This is especially so if that money could be spent on bread
for others and on needs that can be satisfied. Jesus says:
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
Yes, if we really listened to the Lord, especially to the
Lord Jesus in the Gospel, we would discover that there are ways for everyone to
have their needs satisfied in abundance.
Paul can say in the Second Reading that nothing:
…in all creation will be able to separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord…
This is the case even if we are troubled or worried, or
being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes, or being threatened or even
attacked. These are the trials through which we triumph because:
…in all these things we are more than victorious through
him who loved us.
This is because nothing can ever come between us and the
love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Three lessons
In short, the Gospel and these two readings are saying:
- That
God really cares about his people and that there is enough, and more, for
everybody;
- That
the ups and downs of life—whether they are spiritual, emotional, physical,
or material, whether they are personal tragedies or natural disasters—are
basically unavoidable, but are in no way a contradiction of God’s loving
care for us. In fact, these things are in their own way necessary for us
to grow in our awareness of where true peace and happiness lie;
- That
a great deal of God’s care and compassion devolves on our own shoulders. A
great deal of the human suffering in the world has been caused by human
agency and can be relieved by human agency. Jesus did not feed the crowd
directly. He left that to his disciples—and he still does. It is too easy
to blame God, too easy to blame governments, too easy see these things as
other people’s problems. But they are also ours—they are yours and mine.
That is the meaning of the Eucharist we celebrate here
today. Namely, that as Christians, we commit ourselves to sharing in the work
of God to communicate his compassion to all. Our God is a loving and caring
God, and my ongoing co-operation with him can help demonstrate just how caring
he really is.
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Sunday,
August 2, 2026
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Father of
everlasting goodness, our origin and guide, be close to us and hear the prayers
of all who praise you. Forgive our sins and restore us to life. Keep us safe in
your love.
We ask this through our Lord
Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Matthew 14: 13-21
When Jesus received this news of
John beheading, he withdrew by boat to a lonely place where they could be by
themselves. But the crowds heard of this and, leaving the towns, went after him
on foot. So as he stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them
and healed their sick.
When evening came, the disciples
went to him and said, 'This is a lonely place, and time has slipped by; so send
the people away, and they can go to the villages to buy themselves some food.'
Jesus replied, 'There is no need for them to go: give them something to eat
yourselves.' But they answered, 'All we have with us is five loaves and two
fish.' So he said, 'Bring them here to me.' He gave orders that the people were
to sit down on the grass; then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised
his eyes to heaven and said the blessing. And breaking the loaves he handed
them to his disciples, who gave them to the crowds.
They all ate
as much as they wanted, and they collected the scraps left over, twelve baskets
full. Now about five thousand men had eaten, to say nothing of women and
children.
Reflection
•
Context. Chapter 14 of Matthew which contains
the account of the multiplication of the loaves, proposes an itinerary that
guides the reader in a progressive discovery of faith in Jesus: from the lack
of faith on the part of his fellow countrymen to the acknowledgment of the Son
of God, passing through the gift of bread. The fellow citizens of Jesus
marveled at his wisdom but do not understand that this is what acts behind his
works. Besides, having a direct knowledge of Jesus’ family, of his mother, of
his brothers, and of his sisters, they only succeed in seeing in him his human
condition alone: he is the son of the carpenter. Not being understood in his
own hometown, from now on, Jesus will live in the midst of his people, to whom
he will give all his attention and his solidarity. Healing and feeding the
crowds.
•
The dynamic of the account. Matthew has
carefully narrated the episode of the multiplication of the loaves. The episode
is enclosed between two expressions of transition in which he tells us that
Jesus withdrew “separated himself” from the crowds, from the disciples, from
the boat (vv. 13-14; vv. 22-23). Verse 13 does not only serve as transition but
offers us the reason why Jesus went to a desert place. Such a device serves to
create the environment in which the miracle takes place. The evangelist
concentrates the account on the crowd and on the attitude of Jesus in regard to
the crowd.
•
Jesus was moved deeply to pity. At the moment
when Jesus arrives, he finds himself before a crowd awaiting him; in seeing the
crowd he took pity on them and healed their sick. This is a “tired and
depressed crowd for they were like sheep without a shepherd” (9: 36; 20: 34).
The verb that expresses the compassion of Jesus is really meaningful: “Jesus’
heart was broken”; and this corresponds to the Hebrew verb that expresses the
maternal visceral love.
This is the same sentiment
experienced by Jesus before the tomb of Lazarus (Jn 11: 38). Compassion is the
subjective aspect of the experience of Jesus that becomes effective with the
gift of the bread.
•
The gift of the bread. The account of the
multiplication of the loaves is opened with the expression, “when evening came”
(v. 15) that will introduce the account of the Last Supper (Mt 26: 20) and also
that of the burial of Jesus (Mt 27: 57). In the evening, then, Jesus invites
the Apostles to feed the crowd. In the middle of the desert, far away from the
villages and from the cities, Jesus and the disciples find themselves before a
very big human problem; to feed that the big crowd that follows Jesus. But they
cannot take care of this task to provide for the material needs of the crowd
without the power of Jesus. Their immediate response is that of sending the
crowd back home. In the face of human limitations Jesus intervenes and works
the miracle satisfying the hunger of all the people who follow him. To feed the
crowd is the response of Jesus, from his heart which breaks in the face of a
very concrete human need. The gift of the bread is not only sufficient to
satisfy the crowd, but it is so superabundant that it becomes necessary to
gather what was left over. In v. 19b we can see that Matthew gave a Eucharistic
significance to the episode of the multiplication of the loaves: “he raised his
eyes to heaven and said the blessing, and breaking the loaves he handed them to
his disciples”; the role of the disciples is also made evident in their
function of mediation between Jesus and the crowd: “and the disciples
distributed to the crowd” (v. 19c). The gestures that accompany the miracle are
identical to those that Jesus will fulfil later on the “night when he was
betrayed”: he raised his eyes, blessed the bread and breaks it. From here comes
the symbolical value of the miracle: it can be considered an anticipation of
the Eucharist. Besides, on the part of Jesus, feeding the crowds is “a sign”
that he is the Messiah and that he prepares a banquet of joy for the whole
humanity. The disciples learn from Jesus, who distributes the bread to them,
the value of sharing. A symbolical gesture that contains a real fact that goes
beyond the episode itself and is projected on the future: in our daily
Eucharistic celebration, where we relive that gesture of the broken bread, it
is necessary that it be multiplied throughout the whole day.
Personal Questions
•
Do you try to fulfil gestures of solidarity
toward those who are close to you or who share close to you the journey of
life? In the face of very concrete problems of your friends or relatives, do
you know how to offer your help and your availability to collaborate to find a
solution?
•
Before breaking the bread, Jesus raised his eyes
to heaven: do you know how to thank the Lord for the daily gift of bread? Do
you know how to share your goods with others, especially with the poorest?
Concluding Prayer
Keep me far from the way of deceit, grant me the grace of your
Law.
Do not deprive me of that faithful word, since my hope lies
in your judgements. (Ps 119: 29, 43)
