Nova’s Ordo: A Scriptural Reflection on the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Matthew 14: 13-21
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.
I have an extra $500. I have a week off. I can write. I can sing. What should I do with my money, my time, my talent?
It is very easy to look at that extra $500 and think, “This really isn’t enough to help anyone in the long term. It is only a band-aid solution. In the grand scheme of things what is $500, really?
You know what? Rather than drop my $500 into a vast pool of charity where it makes very little difference, I’m gonna spend it on me. I’ll enjoy the heck out of that $500.”
There is the danger that a false humility about what we can contribute to the common good will lead us to not contribute anything at all. But in today’s gospel we see that what is really important is not the amount or the quality of what we have to give, but who we give it to. “Bring them here to me.”
In fact, what the Cross tells us is that all our sacrifices cannot save the world. It doesn’t matter whether we are offering goats in a temple, giving alms to the poor, or using our time and talent to create literature and art. Our sacrifices are simply inadequate to the immense need (5000, not counting women and children!) of the world.
But we must not despair. Though our sacrifices cannot save the world, they can participate in the salvation already won for the world on the Cross. We can bring the little that we have to Christ and, in His hands, they will count for much more than they ever could in ours.
In the liturgy we bring forth a plate full of wafers and a liter or two of wine. Almost nothing! Our parish may well have 1000+ people at a given service. We can’t possibly feed them all with such a pittance. But that’s the point! That nothing, brought to Him, becomes our very life, our salvation.
Take the little that you have and offer it to Christ. As insignificant as it seems, you can join your sacrifice to His. And, taken up in Him, your gift will feed multitudes.
Brett Salkeld is a doctoral student in theology at Regis College in Toronto. He is a father of two (so far) and husband of one.
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Thanks for this, Brett. You captured the core of it all…
Sam
I found this great little quote from Dorothy Day that echoes what you’re saying here, Brett: “Young people say, ‘What is the sense of our small effort?’ They cannot see that we must lay one brick at at time, take one step at a time; we can be responsible only for the one action in the present moment. But we can beg for an increase of love in our hearts that will vitalize and transform all our individual actions, and know that God will take them and multiply them, as Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes.”
Thanks for a lovely and important reflection!
I think we misread this passage if we make it about the contributions that we ourselves make to Jesus’ work. Most of the 5000+ people in the crowd made no contribution at all, and they did right to simply take what they were given. That, it seems to me, is at the core of it all – not that we can contribute, but that we are “jolly beggars”.
But don’t take this personally. This reflection is full of beauty and truth.
One thing I’m realizing as I practice writing these reflections is how inexhaustible the Gospels really are. There are so many truths one could choose to write on in any given week. I think someone could certainly write something beautiful and true along the lines you are indicating.
We’ve all heard the complaints that contraception isn’t preached on. This good presbyter found a connection with today’s readings and did a rather nice job of it methinks:
http://msgrlopecr.blogspot.com/2011/07/contraceptives-population-poverty-and.html