Today’s Scriptures invite us to reflect on the graciousness of our God and his providential care for all his people.
Consider the wonderful invitation that our God gives us through the prophet Isaiah: “Come to me heedfully, listen that you may have life. Heed me, and you shall eat well.”
Our God knows our hungers and invites us to his banquet. Answering the invitation costs us nothing. All we have to do is come with an open heart, willing to listen and eat.
Like the disciples in the Gospel, we can bring our few loaves and fishes to the community. Jesus will bless them and invite us to share what we have with those around us. Everyone will be filled with plenty left over.
The abundance we share should make us mindful of the millions in our world who are hungry every day. We must look for practical ways that we can influence world leaders to share the plenty of the world with the many people who are starving.
For example, membership in Bread for the World enables disciples to lobby Congress to make greater efforts to feed the hungry of America and the poor and hungry of our world. As we listen to God's invitation to all to come and be fed, we must remember our responsibility to make this possible for the millions who find it so difficult to respond to his invitation on a very human level.
Each time we open ourselves to the loving invitation of our God and come and listen, eat and heed, we have a deeper experience of God’s abundant providence for all his people. That deepening experience will enable us to echo St. Paul’s confidence: nothing can separate us from the love of God
shown to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
We can conquer anything overwhelmingly through him who has loved us –
even the hunger of our world. May our faith and trust be deepened as our God feeds us in due season.
