The Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 2, 2026

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.

Our God creates us, sustains us in existence, nourishes us, heals us, and will raise us from the dead at the end of time.  Here, we see how God nourishes us, and how he provides not merely sufficient food, but more than sufficient.  His desire to feed the people and his desire to show how capable he is of doing this lead to everyone eating until they “were satisfied”, and that twelve large baskets held what remained afterwards.

It pays to compare the feeding of the five thousand men, recorded in all four of the Gospels, with the miracle at the Wedding at Cana, recounted in the Gospel of St. John.  In both Gospels, someone pointed out a need to the Lord Jesus: in the case at Cana, it was the low supply of wine.  In both Gospels, Jesus gives directions for the remedy.  At Cana, he has servants pour water into stone jars and then take some out and present it to the master of ceremonies.  Here, he has the Apostles distribute the food.  In both cases, an over-abundance is brought about.  At Cana, he made about 180 gallons of wine, which might have amounted to two or three gallons per guest.  In the feeding of the five thousand, enough was left over to feed hundreds more people.  

We might ponder the meaning of this miracle, for it has a meaning.  All the Lord’s miracles acted as signs.  But we are also assured of this miracle acting as a sign in a remark the Lord makes to the Apostles during a later discussion: “Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?” (Matthew 16, 9).  For help, we look to the end of the account of the wedding at Cana, where St. John comments: “Jesus . . . manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him” (John 2, 11).  This hints to us that while Jesus fed all those men and women because they were hungry, just as he provided wine for the benefit of the guests at the wedding, he also performed this action in order to show forth his glory and to strengthen the belief of his Apostles in him.  These miracles act to prepare the Apostles in this way.  The miracle at Cana prepared them for the Lord’s casting out of the money changers at the temple in Jerusalem, establishing thereby that he regarded this building as his own house; the miracle here prepares them for a great question which he will ask them and which Peter will answer: “Who do you say that I am?” “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16, 18).

This feeding of the five thousand as well as the later feeding of the four thousand, in addition to the making of the wine, ought to remind us of Psalm 104, 27-28: “All look to you, to give them their food in due season. When you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.”  The Lord perfectly fulfills this passage in nourishing the souls which he has created by revealing the depths of God’s love for them, even by dying on the Cross to open heaven for them.  All this he does for us.  We have a fabulous abundance in the food of the Holy Scriptures and in the Holy Eucharist.  If we go hungry, we have only ourselves to blame.

Saturday in the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 30, 2022

Matthew 14, 1-12

Herod the tetrarch heard of the reputation of Jesus and said to his servants, “This man is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why mighty powers are at work in him.”  Now Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, for John had said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Although he wanted to kill him, he feared the people, for they regarded him as a prophet. But at a birthday celebration for Herod, the daughter of Herodias performed a dance before the guests and delighted Herod so much that he swore to give her whatever she might ask for. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests who were present, he ordered that it be given, and he had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who took it to her mother. His disciples came and took away the corpse and buried him; and they went and told Jesus.

The Church teaches that in the interpretation of Holy Scripture, we first need to find and understand its literal sense, the meaning intended by the biblical author through a consideration of the text in its original language, its historical context, and the context of the passage within the book or section of the book.  Thus, in looking at Luke 10, 25-37, we must note first that the Lord is telling a story, a parable.  He is not relating a historical fact.  Then we can examine what it meant to be a Samaritan at the time of Jesus, what inns of the time were like, and so on.  We can also peer into the Greek of the text to see what nuances we can find in the language of the story that would help us better understand it.  After determining the literal sense, we can read more deeply to discover the spiritual sense.  We can do this with the help of the Fathers, especially writers like St. Augustine and St. Jerome.  We can consult the works of St. Thomas and other medieval teachers, too.  Various Catholic editions of the Bible now in print offer these insights in the form of notes.  The spiritual meaning is the more fundamental reality of the text, presenting to us truths which we can learn by considering what lies beneath the literal sense.  In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, we can understand the half-dead victim of robbers as the human race, despoiled of grace by the devil.  The Samaritan in the Son of God who raises the man up on his beast — that is, his Body — and takes him to an inn — the Church.  The wine and oil he uses on the man’s wounds are the Sacraments.

St. Albert the Great (d. 1280) taught at the .university of Paris and among his many books is a wonderful collection of his sermons on the feasts days of saints.  These are brief, direct, and filled with wisdom.  He preaches on the saint and also on the Scriptures used for the Mass of the feast.  In his sermon on the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, St. Albert teaches that we can understand the account of his death, in the spiritual sense, as the devil’s attack against the Christian.  He says that Herod signifies the devil, and that John the Baptist signifies the Christian in the world.  The devil attempts to destroy the soul of the Christian in five ways: sending (Mark 6, 17: “For Herod himself had sent”); apprehending (“and apprehended John”); binding (“bound him”); imprisoning (“and imprisoned him”); and beheading (Mark 6, 28: “And he beheaded him in the prison”).  The devil “sends” temptations to us.  He “apprehends” us through our consent to the temptations.  He conquers and “binds” us through our commission of sin.  He “imprisons” us when sin becomes a habit in us.  And he “beheads” us when we despair of ever repenting.  

St. Albert concludes his sermon with a prayer: “Brethren, pray that the divine mercy may snatch us from the chains and prison of the devil through our true repentance, lest Herodias — the envy of the devil — glory in our destruction, but rather that all the armies of the angels of God rejoice over our salvation.  Amen.”

The Holy Spirit has so caused the Scriptures to be written that untold riches remain to be mined even after thousands of years.  By finding these riches and adorning ourselves inwardly with them, we will persevere in time of temptation and comes into the presence of Almighty God.