HOMILY FOR EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A. 02.08.2020.
Readings: Isaiah 55:1-3; Psalm 145;
Romans 8:35.37-39 and Matthew 14:13-21. 
Give them something!
DIVINE INVITATION TO EXPERIENCE GOD'S GENEROSITY
Sometimes we
express sad feelings when our friends or family members throws party without
inviting us. We feel bitter that they do no regard nor honour us. Even when we
discover the upcoming event before the date, and realized it is strictly by
invitation, our grief for the host increases. Here we are today, honoured by God
himself with a Divine Invitation, an invitation that expresses the love of God
towards us, who wants to quench our thirst and satisfy our hunger. If God is
this good to us, what then can separate us from his love?
From the first
reading of today the Lord said, “Ho,
everyone who thirsts, come to the water; and he who has no money, come, buy and
eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price.” What a
beautiful invite! This is not “Strictly by invitation”, it is for everyone. An invitation
for a banquet, to be fed by God, whether you are given invitation card or not, come!
Whether we have money or not, come! The water, the wine, the milk and all we
need to eat are free. Someone has paid for it; all we need to do is, come! Isaiah
wants us to understand the gift of God to humanity. He wants us to know that God
has seen our hunger, our thirst, our weakness, our sufferings, sorrows and sickness
and he is ready to attend to our needs. In line with this, the psalmist of
today said, “How good is the Lord to all,
compassionate to all his creatures.” God did not only invites us to feed
us, he invites us to follow him as our leader, using David as a prototype of
his leadership, from whose linage we receive the best gift to humanity, the
gift of Christ the Lord.
In the gospel,
Christ is presented as a leader that is sensitive to the plight of his people
when he fed the crowd. The feeding was without payment; it was without money. The
invitation to a banquet as seen in the first reading is realized in the gospel.
There is an invitation that made the crowd followed Christ and he had compassion
on them and healed their sick. Just as the psalmist said, “The Lord is kind and full of compassion… compassionate to all his
creatures.” The Lord is not only compassionate, he is sensitive to the
plight of his people, he noticed their hunger and request and asked the
disciples to “give them something to eat”
even when they were of the opinion that “They
need go away.” At this point, Christ teaches us to generosity. Learning from
his teaching, five loaves and two fish were provided, which Matthew did not
record the source of it but John’s Gospel tells us a little boy expressed this
generosity (John 6:9). When they brought the bread and fish to Christ, “He ordered the crowd to sit down on the
grass.” They could have had their
meal standing, but Christ prepared an atmosphere of a banquet for them, where there
is enough for everyone. At their fill, twelve baskets were gathered,
indicating God’s blessings in abundance when we are generous to him and to
others.
Our acts of
generosity goes a long way for God to bless us. Even with the little we have,
let us learn to share. Let us not act like the disciples by asking the crowd to
go away, of which Christ rebuked them saying, “They need not go away; you give them something.” The disciples
asking that the crowd go away is a way to separate them from Christ. In view of
this, St. Paul asked a beautiful question in the second reading, “Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness,
or peril, or sword?” These are obstacles that stands on our way to the
heavenly banquet. Paul wants us to
understand that the love of God is incomparable with anything in this world. It
was out of love God gave us his Son as the greatest gift to the world, who paid
the price of our salvation and so, the invitation of Isaiah to come and drink,
and eat without money is fulfilled in Christ. Therefore, St. Paul encourages
us not to give-up on our journey to salvation, because of the temporal challenges
we are facing. Let us fight the good fight to the end and not because of selfishness,
grudges, anger, un-forgiveness or other vices loose our salvation.
In a nutshell, let
us honour this beautiful invitation of God to a life of generosity, as He is
generous to us, for when we give, it come back to us. Let us not send away
those in need of our help but rather, give them something to eat. Let our hands
be open like our heavenly Father, to satisfy the needs of those around us. Lastly,
we are urged to be compassionate like our heavenly Father. May God help us
through Christ our Lord. Amen! Peace be with you!
Happy Sunday!
Fr. Ken Dogbo, OSJ
May God who is so generous to us grant us generous heart to always see and help those in need Amen.
ReplyDeleteGod bless you Padre and happy Sunday.
A generous homily padre, may you be richly blessed. Happy Sunday padre.
ReplyDeleteThanks Fr. Happy Sunday
ReplyDelete