Daily Readings Reflection for 8/03/09

Reflection on the Daily Readings for 8/03/09 by Fr. Bertrand Buby, SM

Monday, Aug. 3, 2009. Scripture: Numbers 11:14-15. Psalm 81: 12-13, 14-15,
16-17. Matthew 14:13-21. Lectionary # 407.

We often hear the Psalm refrain, "The Lord hears the cry of the poor." We
also know that it is a top priority for the last two Popes in their
homilies and encyclicals.God definitely is concerned with the poor as the
psalms tell us so eloquently and frequently. We remember the poor through
the beatitudes in both Matthew or Gospel for this time of year and also in
Luke. We ourselves see the poor on T.V. and hear of their needs through so
many agencies who try to help them. Yet, poverty is almost everywhere on
the globe and in every country even in our own. Our prayers are important
for them who have no shelter, no food, no clean water; those who have no
one to care for them or love them, the lonely on our streets who hover
under storefronts or any where they can find some protection during the
night. We have hope for we know from our first reading how much God cares
for all of us just as he did for the poor Israelites who once were ransomed
from Egypt and then as the poor of God wandered in a dry desert of
wasteland and no water. God did give them the manna and the quail to
sustain them. The did have some hope and eventually they were led into a
land of milk and honey.

Jesus, the Son of God, shows the compassion of God and feeds the hungry on
the hillsides of Galilee. The happening was very important and is the only
miracle that is found in all four Gospels and even is narrated six times
within them due to Mark and Matthew's double miracle of the feeding of the
crowd with the loaves and fish. With God and the Son of God "nothing is
impossible" not even the miraculous feedings.

Today it is easy for us to apply the readings to the Eucharist which is
offered each day. Jesus enacts in the gathering of the hungry crowd the
miracle of the bread and fish. In the Eucharist we hear him say the same
words as are said over the elements of bread and wine offered on the altar.
Jesus tells us in this chapter six of John that he is the Bread of Life,
the Manna come down from heaven. We are fed by God and God's Son. We have
also the divine revelation of God's loving providence manifested through
the multiple remembrances that the Evangelists have handed on to us. God
and Jesus never cease giving of themselves to us. Should we then be led to
give our help and our support to the homeless and the hungry? Amen.