The 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
This weekend in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus feeds around 5000 men, not including the women and children, using five loaves of bread and two fish. This is a miracle that many of us know. It was captured in all four Gospels, and each one gives us a different perspective. For example, we learn from the Gospel of John that a boy is the one who had the five loaves and two fish. They all tell us that the disciples wanted Jesus to dismiss the crowds so they could go into the villages and get food for themselves. Instead, Jesus wanted them to feed the crowds. The disciples felt they didn’t have the means to feed these many people even with a boy's gift of five loaves and two fish.
How often do we feel like we don’t have the means to do what God is asking us to do? Maybe we are busy and don’t have the time, or we feel that the small amount we do have wouldn’t make much of a difference anyway. God can take even the smallest amount and use it in a big way. Today we see that with this small gift of five loaves and two fish, Jesus was able to feed thousands of people, not just a little but enough that they were satisfied. Afterward, the disciples were able to gather 12 wicker baskets full of the leftover fragments. They ended with more than they had at the beginning. This is how God works his miracles. By doing the impossible with the little his faithful are able to give, especially when we are giving him everything we have.
It can be hard to place our trust completely in God. As we read in the Gospel, even the disciples struggled with this. It’s human nature to think that we can do things all by ourselves. God has blessed us with everything we have, even our next breath. He wants to take care of us and feed us both physically and spiritually. All we need to do is continue to accept his gift and completely surrender ourselves to him. Then he can use us to feed a world that desperately needs his love and mercy.
Your brother in Christ,
Deacon Manny
