Eighteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time - Homily

August 02, 2020 11:30 am · Sergio Muñoz Fita

This Sunday we see the Lord working the well-known miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish, with which he feeds a hungry and tired crowd. In this miracle, the Church has always seen an image of the Eucharist and, therefore, the readings of this Mass help us to reflect on our relationship with the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. In the long version of this homily, I allow myself to apply in some way this page of the Gospel to the situation that we have lived and continue to live in relation to the coronavirus pandemic. It is evident that the decisions taken to restrict access to the Eucharist have caused great suffering to the faithful. In my humble opinion, it has also been a wound for the unity of the Church, because, as we pray in the Second Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass, the Holy Spirit gathers in unity those who participate in the same Body and Blood of Christ. Still and all, today we want to thank the Lord for his love for us and the care with which he attends to us. His heart sympathizes with our weakness and always comes to our aid. Especially here, at Holy Mass, he nourishes us with his Word and with his Body. The situation we have recently experienced should remind us to never take the gift of the Eucharist for granted. Perhaps we had become so accustomed, or it was so easy for us to receive Holy Communion, that the Lord wanted to use what has happened so that we realize how lost we would be without Him. Now we know better how difficult fidelity is without the Eucharist; how weak we are when we lack the Body of the Lord; how quickly we sink when we fall away from Jesus Christ, as we will hear in the Gospel next Sunday. So we ask God to always give us this Eucharistic bread, that we will love him in the Eucharist with fervor, and that when we feel tired, we will seek strength and rest in the Lord, who always awaits us in the Tabernacle and in Holy Communion to give us light, grace, strength, hope, and eternal life.

In the Gospel this Sunday after feeding the souls of the multitude with the bread of his Word, the Lord provides for their bodies with the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish. In that order: first, nurturing hearts and then satisfying bodily hunger. In that priority there is already a teaching for us who are so frequently focused on temporal needs.

Last Sunday, we said that Christ was the hidden treasure in the field that is worth giving everything for. Today we remember that He is the one who gives us the only food that satisfies us forever.

I cannot stop thinking about what has happened in recent months in relation to the Sacrament of the Eucharist, “the Living Bread that came down from heaven” that "contains all the good of the Church", as the Second Vatican Council and the Magisterium tell us. As I write this homily, in more than a few places in the world, access to the Blessed Sacrament has been restricted again and many of our brothers and sisters cannot receive Holy Communion. We are very fortunate. Although he will most likely never hear these words, I want to thank our bishop from my heart for allowing us to distribute the Eucharistic bread to the hungry crowds. I also want, on behalf of the Church, whose priest I am, to apologize for the scandal caused by many of the decisions that have been made during this time. I must confess that to this day, and after many months, I am still not clear about many of the things that have happened. It is perhaps too early to know, and I am afraid to look into this abyss. I will not do it today.

In the Gospel this morning, the Lord asks his disciples to feed hungry people. That request is born from an even deeper desire: God's longing to nurture his children. He wants to feed his family. Today's entire first reading is the expression of that desire: This is what the Lord says: “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!" The psalm, for its part, tells us: "You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing."

So I am left in doubt as to whether it is legitimate, or if someone can stand between the desire of souls for the Bread from Heaven and the desire of God to feed those whom He loves so much.

Still and all, today we want to thank the Lord for his love for us and the care with which he attends to us. His heart sympathizes with our weakness and always comes to our aid. Especially here, at Holy Mass, he nourishes us with his Word and with his Body. The situation we have recently experienced should remind us to never take the gift of the Eucharist for granted. Perhaps we had become so accustomed, or it was so easy for us to receive Holy Communion, that the Lord wanted to use what has happened so that we realize how lost we would be without Him. Now we know better how difficult fidelity is without the Eucharist; how weak we are when we lack the Body of the Lord; how quickly we sink when we fall away from Jesus Christ, as we will hear in the Gospel next Sunday.

In his Rule, Saint Benedict exhorts us to prefer nothing to the love of Christ. Today Saint Paul assures us that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. God never stops loving us, and that also applies to his presence in the Eucharist. From the tabernacle, He is loving us. From within our hearts, after Communion, He is loving us. If we persevere with him in that Eucharistic love, Jesus will take us to himself at the end of our life on earth.

So we ask God to always give us this Eucharistic bread, that we will love him in the Eucharist with fervor, and that when we feel tired, we will seek strength and rest in the Lord, who always awaits us in the Tabernacle and in Holy Communion to give us light, grace, strength, hope, and eternal life.