August 4, 2025
Memorial of Saint John Vianney, Priest
Lectionary: 407
Reading 1
The children of Israel lamented,
"Would that we had meat for food!
We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt,
and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks,
the onions, and the garlic.
But now we are famished;
we see nothing before us but this manna."
Manna was like coriander seed and had the color of resin.
When they had gone about and gathered it up,
the people would grind it between millstones or pound it in a mortar,
then cook it in a pot and make it into loaves,
which tasted like cakes made with oil.
At night, when the dew fell upon the camp, the manna also fell.
When Moses heard the people, family after family,
crying at the entrance of their tents,
so that the LORD became very angry, he was grieved.
"Why do you treat your servant so badly?" Moses asked the LORD.
"Why are you so displeased with me
that you burden me with all this people?
Was it I who conceived all this people?
Or was it I who gave them birth,
that you tell me to carry them at my bosom,
like a foster father carrying an infant,
to the land you have promised under oath to their fathers?
Where can I get meat to give to all this people?
For they are crying to me,
'Give us meat for our food.'
I cannot carry all this people by myself,
for they are too heavy for me.
If this is the way you will deal with me,
then please do me the favor of killing me at once,
so that I need no longer face this distress."
Responsorial Psalm
R. (2a) Sing with joy to God our help.
"My people heard not my voice,
and Israel obeyed me not;
So I gave them up to the hardness of their hearts;
they walked according to their own counsels."
R. Sing with joy to God our help.
"If only my people would hear me,
and Israel walk in my ways,
Quickly would I humble their enemies;
against their foes I would turn my hand."
R. Sing with joy to God our help.
"Those who hated the LORD would seek to flatter me,
but their fate would endure forever,
While Israel I would feed with the best of wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would fill them."
R. Sing with joy to God our help.
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."
He 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/080425.cfm
Commentary on
Numbers 11:4-15
We move on today to the Book of Numbers and we will just
have four readings from it (Monday through Thursday). Its Hebrew title is “In
the Wilderness”, which seems a more appropriate description of its contents.
‘Numbers’ simply refers to the beginning of the book where a census of the
people is described.
The book, as a whole, is divided into three main sections:
- Preparing
to leave Sinai (1:1—10:10);
- The
journey to Kadesh, where a first attempt to enter Canaan was made
(10:11—21:13); and
- the
journey from Kadesh via Transjordan with the intention of approaching
Canaan from the east. (21:14—36:13).
Following the estimation of the book itself, the Israelites
spent more than 35 years of their 40 years of ‘wandering’ in Kadesh.
Numbers immediately follows on the book of Leviticus as the
fourth book of the Pentateuch, (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy). It continues the story of the journey in the desert, but also
includes various legal prescriptions which either supplement the Sinaitic code,
or prepare for the time when the people will have settled in Canaan.
The first four chapters of Numbers consist of a census of
all the tribes of Israel (hence the title of the book). There follow various
laws and the offerings of the leaders and consecration of the Levites. Chapter
9 consists of a supplement to Exodus about the Passover. In chapter 11 we come
to a section describing halts in the wilderness. Today’s reading comes from
this section, and we find the Israelites still grumbling about their lot.
The foreigners among them were so anxious to have meat that
the Hebrews also complained that they wanted some too:
If only we had meat to eat!
In fact, meat would not have been part of their regular diet
when they were slaves in Egypt. Now that they were in a new type of distress,
they romanticised the past and minimised its discomforts. And they do not
mention meat as food they had in Egypt, but only fish, vegetables and fruits.
Now, they claim they are starving, with nothing to eat, but
manna. Manna seems to have had quite a pleasant taste, but as we also know, too
much of anything can become tiresome. It also seems to have been quite
nutritious, so the claim about starvation was somewhat exaggerated.
We are given a description of manna and how it was prepared.
It was like coriander seed, and in Exodus we are told that it was white (lying
on the ground it looked like hoar frost) and it tasted like wafers made with
honey. It had the appearance of bdellium, a transparent, amber-coloured gum
resin, which is also mentioned in Genesis as being found in the Garden of Eden.
Every night (except on the Sabbath) when the dew came, the manna fell also. To
eat it, the people ground it into a kind of flour, cooked it in a pot and made
it into loaves which tasted like cakes made with oil.
The target and scapegoat of their troubles was, as usual,
Moses, whom they blamed for their present situation. God, too, was not very
happy with the ingratitude of the people for whom he had done so much.
Poor Moses! He was caught in the middle, receiving flak from
both sides. In great distress he spoke to God. He had his own complaints to
make:
Why have you treated your servant so badly?
He wants to know why he has to carry the burden of blame
when it was God’s own idea to bring the people out of Egypt:
Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them,
that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a wet nurse carries a
nursing child, to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors’?
Moses felt he could no longer carry the burden alone. Our
reading ends with Moses saying he would prefer death than to have to carry on
like this.
In fact, God was listening. It is not in today’s reading,
but God did hear his prayer and spread Moses’ responsibilities among 70 elders.
As for the people’s cry for meat, they would get an abundance of quail every
day for a month, until they would get so sick at the very sight of meat that they
would never want to see it again! They got what they asked for, but it was
turned into a punishment for their grumbling.
How much of our conversation with colleagues and friends
consists of grumbling about all kinds of things? How many people do we see made
the scapegoats for what we think has gone wrong? How many of the things we
think we cannot do without lose their attractiveness once we have got them in
abundance? We are not so different from the Israelites.
Let us today once again count our blessings. Most likely, we
will see they far outweigh our grievances.
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Commentary on
Matthew 14:13-21
The announcement of John the Baptist’s death is followed
immediately in Matthew by the feeding of the 5,000 in the desert. Matthew says
that Jesus, on hearing of his cousin’s tragic death, withdrew by boat to a
desert place by himself. He clearly wanted time to reflect. He knew that, if
things continued as they were, he too would be facing trouble.
However, the crowds knew where he had gone and followed
along the shore on foot and:
When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had
compassion for them and cured their sick.
His own troubles were set aside as he saw the greater need
of the people. We have here, of course, an image of our God, filled with
compassion for all of us and anxious to bring us healing and wholeness.
As evening comes down, the disciples suggest that the people
be sent to neighbouring villages for food. It is the first mention of the
disciples’ presence. In Mark’s version of this story, the disciples had
accompanied Jesus in the boat at his invitation, so that they could all have a period
of quiet away from the crowds. Jesus’ response is simple and to the point:
They need not go away; you give them something to eat.
They reply:
We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.
This, of course, is a sign of the future. It will be the responsibility
of Jesus’ followers to give the people the nourishment they need for their
lives. At times, their resources will seem very inadequate, but time will show
that wonders can be done with very little. Just look at what St (Mother) Teresa
of Calcutta achieved with nothing of her own.
The people are then ordered to sit down on the grass. Jesus
takes the loaves and fish, looks up to heaven in the direction of his Father,
blesses the food, breaks it and gives it to the disciples, who in turn
distribute it among the people. The whole action clearly prefigures the
Eucharist and leads up to it.
It is not explained how it all happened, but “five thousand
men”, not counting the women and children also present, had their fill. Matthew
alone notes the presence of women and children. As Jews did not permit women
and children to eat together with men in public, they would have been in a
separate place by themselves. And what was left over filled 12 baskets—a
perfect number symbolising both abundance, and also the number of the Apostles.
There are two clear lessons. The first is that God takes
care of his people. We can read the feeding in two ways. On the one hand, we
can simply take it as a miraculous event, pointing to the divine origins of
Jesus. On the other hand, there is another possibility with its own meaning.
Once the disciples began to share the little food they had with those around,
it triggered a similar movement among the crowd, many of whom had actually
brought some food with them. When everyone shared, everyone had enough—a
picture of the kind of society the Church should stand for. Some might say that
this is explaining away the miracle, but it also makes an important point for
us to consider in our own lives.
The second lesson is that it was the disciples and not Jesus
who distributed the bread and fish. And so it must be in our own time. If the
followers of Jesus do not share with others what they have received from him,
the work of Jesus and the spreading of the Gospel will not happen.
Lastly, and as already mentioned, there are clear
Eucharistic elements in the story—especially the ritualistic way in which Jesus
prayed, blessed, broke and distributed the bread. The breaking of the bread (a
name for the Mass) is very important because it indicates sharing and not just
eating. The Eucharist is the celebration of a sharing community. If sharing of
what we have in real life is not taking place, then the Eucharist becomes a
ritualistic sham, like:
…whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful
but inside are full of the bones of the dead… (Matt 23:27)
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o1182g/
Monday,
August 4, 2025
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 regarding
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)
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