The Sánchez Archives EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Year A

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

Come, Eat, Listen, Learn, Live

ISAIAH 55:1-3
ROMANS 8:35, 37-39
MATTHEW 14:13-21

Statisticians report that for at least two thirds of the world’s population, hunger is a daily experience, not the slight twinge of discomfort or abdominal rumbling which may occur if a meal is skipped or delayed, but the deep, painful, sunken-eyed, body-emaciating type of hunger which is virtual starvation. Every hour of every day, at least 1500 people die of hunger or hunger-related causes while farmers in some of the world’s wealthiest industrialized nations are paid not to grow certain crops and to relegate others to storage bins and warehouses. To further compound this untenable situation, billions of dollars is spent annually on a variety of weight loss products and programs because one third of the world’s population is sated with seventy-five percent of its food supply. Since most of the readers of this publication are probably among the fortunate, for whom physical hunger is not a routine experience, it may be difficult to fully appreciate the impact of today’s readings. In both the first reading and the gospel the hungry were called to come and be filled at the banquet which the Lord freely provided.

The contemporaries of the prophet known as Deutero-Isaiah, and those of Jesus were familiar with the daily struggle of earning enough food for themselves and their families; the very idea of plentiful, free food was, in itself, a feast for the mind. But, in addition to providing for their physical appetites, the Lord was also offering to satisfy the spiritual hungers of his people. Perhaps it is in this regard that modern believers can best understand the significance of these readings.

First associated with the covenant, which was sealed with a shared meal in the presence of God (a meal which signified the communion between God and his people), the idea of a grand repast was later associated with the messianic era (Isaiah 26:6). Recall the parables in which Jesus described the kingdom of God, or the saving reign, which he as Messiah had come to establish in terms of a great banquet (Matthew 22:1-10, Luke 14:7-11). At this banquet,. every hunger, both physical and spiritual would be satisfied by God himself. Invitations to the banquet would be issued freely, but only the hungry and thirsty, viz., only the poor ones, humble and wise enough to know their needs would come. Similar invitations to come, eat and be satisfied appear in the sapiential literature wherein Wisdom hosts a feast for those who would listen and learn and thereby come to truly know the God who answers even hunger with his blessing (Proverbs 9:3-6, Isaiah 24:19-22).

Jesus’ multiplication of the loaves for the multitude reached back into Jewish tradition to alert his contemporaries to the fact that Wisdom had become flesh through his words and works and that the era of the Messiah had indeed arrived. Those who would listen and learn from him would truly come to know God and to experience the salvation he offered. Jesus’ feeding of the crowd also looked ahead to his last meal with his disciples, wherein he offered himself as the food and drink which would sustain them after his death and resurrection.

This gathered assembly, which continues to satisfy its hunger at each Eucharistic sharing, might also recognize an inherent challenge in today’s gospel. Notice the active ministerial role of the disciples. It was they who presented the needs of the crowd to Jesus and assisted in sharing the loaves among the people. In addition to their spiritual hungers, too many in this word suffer from physical deprivation. Is it not also the responsibility of the Eucharistic community to answer these hungers? Addressing this issue before Congress in November 1918, President Woodrow Wilson noted, “Hunger does not breed reform; it breeds madness and all the ugly distempers that make an ordered life impossible.” O’Henry, a contemporary of Wilson, put it another way: “Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man’s starving” (“Cupid à la Carte”, Heart of the West, 1907).

Jesus’ approach to redemption was holistic; he healed bodies and filled stomachs as well as minds and hearts. His church can do no less.

ISAIAH 55:1-3

When the Semitic tribes enslaved in Egypt received the news of their impending freedom and the hope of a land of their own, it was described in terms which signified prosperity and peace. First promised in Exodus 3:8, the motif of “a land flowing with milk and honey” is repeated more than twenty times in the Hebrew scriptures; at every mention, the phrase imparted the assurance that God had taken notice of his people’s suffering and would intervene on their behalf. Through the mediation of Moses and by mighty acts of power, God led the enslaved people out of Egypt, made a covenant with them in the desert and saw them home to the land they had been promised.

Approximately six centuries later, the people of Israel found themselves in a predicament similar to their experience in Egypt. Having been unfaithful to God by breaking the covenant and its terms (the law), Israel was driven from its land and forced to live as displaced persons in Babylon.

Companion to his people during their exile, Deutero-Isaiah kept the hopes of his contemporaries alive by offering them visions of a joyous homecoming. In celebration of their return, God would host a banquet for those who had been chastened by their sufferings; their only requisites were a sincere hunger and an authentic thirst for what he had to offer. Commenting upon the humble attitude of the returning exiles, Thierry Maertens and Jean Frisque noted, “We have here the picture of a group tried by poverty, whose hope nevertheless has been purged of any vengeful emphasis. They rely rather on the knowledge that comes from faith and destitution than on the material benefits of the messianic banquet.” (Guide For The Christian Assembly, Fides Pub. Inc., Notre Dame: 1972).

In addition to tending to the physical hungers of his returning people, Deutero-Isaiah’s invitation includes a summons to come and listen heedfully to God in order to have life (vs. 3). The prophet’s words reprise the statement of the Deuteronomist, viz., “He humbled you by letting you hunger and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, to make you understand that human beings live not on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3). For his part, Carroll Stuhlmueller explained, “The prophet is not insisting on a spiritual substitution for material bread but rather is inculcating a proper religious spirit or social attitude with which to share food” (“Deutero-Isaiah”, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs: 1990).

Once reinstated as God’s people in their own land and having been fed at his banquet and by his teaching, Israel was renewed by the promises of the everlasting covenant which had been made with David (2 Samuel 7:8-16). The verses immediately following today’s first reading go on to describe David as God’s witness to the people and a leader who shall call the nations that do not know God in order that these may run to him (Isaiah 55:4-5). By renewing the everlasting Davidic covenant with the returning Israel, God made the people witnesses to the nations and charged them (and us) with leading others to him.

The early Christians understood that Deutero-Isaiah’s invitation to come and be filled by God and to enter into everlasting covenant with God found its ultimate fulfillment in their eucharistic sharing. Today, that sharing is continued and, through it, we are made witnesses of divine goodness to those who have yet to know God.

ROMANS 8:35, 37-39

When the British naval commander, Lord Nelson reported his great victory over the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile (1798), he said that victory was not a large enough word to describe what had been accomplished. When Paul revelled in the victory over sin and every other adversity which is afforded every believer through the saving work of Jesus Christ, the term conqueror seemed insufficient. For this reason he exclaimed, “we are more that conquerors!. . .” (vs. 37). Unfortunately, this excerpted pericope excludes part of Paul’s compelling argument. Beginning at Romans 8:31, Paul attributed the victory which Christians share in Christ to the love of God. V. Taylor has called Paul’s celebratory hymn “an impassioned testimony to the all-sufficiency of the Love of Christ for us, a testimony which is without parallel in the world’s literature” (“The Epistle to the Romans”, Epworth Preacher’s Commentaries, Epworth Press, London: 1955).

In assuring his readers of the love of God, Paul recalled the fact that God did not spare even his own Son but delivered him up for us all (vs. 32). With phraseology reminiscent of Abraham’s willingness to offer Isaac (Genesis 22:12, 16) Paul declared that if God had given the ultimate gift of his Son, could not believers rest secure in the knowledge that God would see them through every other difficulty as well?

The series of rhetorical questions in verses 32-34 conjure up a courtroom scene. Plagued by the vicissitudes of life, believers are “on trial”, as it were; but God who is both advocate and judge has already acquitted them through the gift of his own Son on the cross. Therefore, Christians need fear none of the catalog of obstacles which Paul lists and summarily dismisses in verses 38-39.

“Death and life” may be an all inclusive expression, as in from east to west, north to south or from A to Z. Paul’s point is that absolutely NOTHING can deter believers from the love with which God intends. Angels, principalities and powers (vs. 38) referred to spirits or supernatural beings who were thought to wield power over humankind; whether they were good or evil cannot be determined with certainty. But, even these could not thwart God’s love or his plan for his people. Height and depth (vs. 39) were probably astrological terms designating the proximity or distance of a star from its zenith. Recall that the ancients believed (and this notion persists to modern times) that the stars exercised considerable influence upon the behavior and destiny of human beings. These also, are powerless to separate believers from God’s love, said Paul. Nothing present or future, nor can any creature obviate the love of God which found its fullest expression in the Christ-event and which remains the basis of Christian life and hope.

MATTHEW 14:13-21

Throughout his gospel, the Matthean evangelist drew parallels between Moses and Jesus in an effort to help his community to begin to identify themselves as a church of Christian disciples, rooted in, and yet distinct from Judaism. Aware of the tradition that ascribed the Pentateuch or first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures to Moses, Matthew arranged his gospel in a clearly discernible structure, comprised of five books.

Just as Moses went to the mountain to commune with God and then mediated his will to Israel in the form of the Torah (law), so Jesus went up the mountain and taught his disciples the new law of the kingdom (Matthew 5-7). In today’s gospel pericope there are also subtle nuances which remind the reader of Moses. Recall that Moses led the escapees from Egypt through the Sea of Reeds to the desert where, by God’s power, he was able to nourish the traveling multitude with manna. In like manner, Matthew has portrayed the loaves event against the backdrop of the sea and a deserted place (vs. 13); like Moses, Jesus nourished the crowd with a wondrous supply of bread.

Because of the similarities between Jesus’ actions and events from Hebrew tradition (e.g. Exodus 16, manna; 2 Kings 4:42-44, Elisha’s miracle of the loaves) and because of the obvious eucharistic overtones in this narrative (vs. 19), some critics (Jesus’ Seminar) attribute the story of Jesus’ feeding of the multitude to the early church. But John P. Meier is more accurate in his assessment: “In my view”, says Meier, “each of these sources has indeed left its mark on the various versions of the story. . . As it was retold in early Christian tradition, the account of Jesus feeding the multitude was refracted through the lenses of the Elisha and Last Supper stories; but these stories do not seem to have created the Gospel feeding miracle out of whole cloth.” (A Marginal Jew, Volume II: Mentor, Message, Miracles, Doubleday, New York: 1994).

Told no less than six times in the four gospels, the loaves event is the only miracle so emphasized. It reprised the best traditions of God’s provident care form past events of salvation history as it looked ahead to the culmination of God’s saving acts in the messianic era. According to the pseudepigraphical Syrian Apocalypse of Baruch (also called 2 Baruch), “it shall come to pass at that self-same time that the treasure of manna shall again descend from on high, and they will eat of it in those years, because these are they who have come to the consummation of time.”

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, when the early Christians began to pass on the oral, and then the written tradition of the loaves miracle, they understood it as an anticipation of the Last Supper which in turn was a prelude to the eternal banquet of the kingdom (26:29). Notice that the same main actions and verbs (took, blessed, broke) were used to describe both the loaves event and the institution of the Eucharist. It is significant that Jesus’ action of “looking up to heaven” has been incorporated into the consecration prayer of the Roman Canon although it does not appear in any of the gospel narratives of eucharistic institution. The fact that Matthew chose not to mention the fish (unlike Mark 6:41) is further attestation to the eucharistic typology of this miracle. That the crowds ate, until they were satisfied (vs. 20), indicated that Deutero-Isaiah’s vision of the messianic banquet (first reading) had been realized through Jesus’ actions. Moreover, the crowds’ satisfaction recalled Jesus’ beatitude, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied” (5:6).

Today, both righteousness and satisfaction are afforded each of us in the eucharistic words and works of Jesus. All that is needed is an abiding faith, and a hunger which refuses to be sated except by him.

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