Fr. Michael Williams

As a priest you often witness people’s grief and sorrow at the loss of a loved one. I’ve lost count of the number of people who apologize for their sorrow. But I always say, ‘Don’t apologize, it shows your human’. It is only brute beasts who would fail to mourn. Our Lord reveals His real humanity in today’s gospel as He is deeply upset about the killing of John the Baptist, who was both innocent and just. Our Lord loved John, and so when ‘He received the news of John the Baptist’s death, He withdrew by boat to a lonely place, where they could be by themselves’. He needed time and space to come to terms with the death of this just and righteous man; He needed to grieve the death of his cousin and the one who helped prepare His mission. Grieving is an expression of love and reveals one’s true humanity.

After a period of grieving though, Jesus moves forwards. He does not get into self pity, which is a form of self-indulgence. After grieving John’s death, the gospel tells us that, ‘Jesus took pity’ on ‘a large crowd’ that had assembled at the shore. It was time to move on from His grief. And so He used His power as God to feed the hungry crowd. Our Lord still feeds people today by using natural means to provide produce for us to eat and drink. Do we thank God for His gifts of food and drink? Do we say grace before and after meals as a sign of our appreciation to God for His goodness? Everything we have comes from God so it is important that in our prayer we thank Him for His many benefits. With the psalmist we can pray, ‘How good is the Lord to all, compassionate to all His creatures’. Of course we know that not everyone in the world has enough food to eat and water to drink.

But another insight we receive from today’s gospel is that the Lord encouraged His disciples to feed the hungry crowd. They were to participate in the Lord’s venture of feeding the hungry crowd. St Matthew tells us: ‘Breaking the loaves He handed them to His disciples who gave them to the crowds’. There are many hungry crowds in our world and there is certainly enough food to go around. As the Lord’s disciples today what are we doing to feed the hungry of our world? St James would ask the first Christians, ‘If one of the brothers or sisters is in need…and has not enough food to live on, and one of you says to them, “I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty”, without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that…faith if good deeds do not go with it is quite dead’ (James 2). I recently read that if we have a fridge full of food, clothes on our backs, a roof over our heads and a place to sleep, then we are part of the richest twenty five percent of people in the world. Supporting those who are not so fortunate is an essential element of Christian discipleship. Supporting Catholic charities that help feed he hungry is something that we all need to do.

There is also a spiritual dimension to the feeding of the five thousand, as it points toward the Eucharistic Feast where the Lord feeds His people with the Bread of Life. This happens on the Lord’s Day across the globe. Think of the people who will be fed with the Bread of Life today! The Lord seeks to satisfy the great spiritual thirst deep within us. If it is not satisfied it will be filled up with junk instead. But the Lord invites us, ‘Come to the water all you who are thirsty’. He is the Water of Life who alone can satisfy the thirsty soul. At the recent World Youth Day in Sydney, large crowds recently gathered to be fed spiritually by the Vicar of Christ. Apparently the World Youth Day in Sydney was the biggest gathering of people ever on the continent of Australia. It illustrates the great thirst young people have for sound spiritual food. In Sydney the Pope noted: ‘In so many of our societies, side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair’. Many are spiritually starving, as a result of turning way from the Lord, when it is He alone who can satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts. If people turn away from God they alienate themselves from their deepest desires and the reason for their existence. The Pope went on to say, ‘Faith teaches us that in Jesus Christ…we come to understand the grandeur of our own humanity, the mystery of our life on this earth, and the sublime destiny which awaits us in heaven’. We have gathered here to day to be fed by the Lord so let us give thanks to Him and remember: ‘Nothing can come between us and the love of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or being threatened or even attacked. These are the trials through which we triumph, by the power of Him who loved us’.