Scripture Reading Reflection
By Fr. Andrew Kelly
EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY ORDINAL TIME —AUG. 3, 2014
Sometimes the believing community forgets who is in charge and control when the community gathers for worship. Sunday’s Gospel (Matthew 14:13-21) is a reminder that it is the risen Lord and not the community’s ordained or non-ordained ministers. Their task is to humbly listen and then obediently follow Jesus’ commands.
In Sunday’s Gospel the disciples (community ministers?) are helpless to feed both the people’s physical and spiritual needs. They recommend to Jesus: “…send the crowds away…” But Jesus says: “…They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”
The disciples/ministers brought their scarcity (five loaves and two fishes) to Jesus. Jesus “…blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.”
Matthew’s pointed message is please do not forget that it is the risen Jesus who is in charge and control. The disciples/ministers’ task is first to silently listen and then faithfully obey. If this is the community’s faith-filled relationship with the risen Lord, then scarcity disappears and abundance is forever present in the community’s life:
“And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.”
(Father Andrew Kelly is a retired priest of the Diocese of Davenport.)
