By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
August 2, 2020: 18th Sunday in Ordinary time
Isaiah 55:1-3; Romans 8: 35, 37-39; Matthew 14:13-21
You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing! The hand of the Lord feeds us; the Lord answers all our needs. Lovely words that we pray at the Responsorial time this Sunday. How good it would be if it were true in every sense!
Are we ever satisfied? Why all the bickering among the richest on the planet, everyday trying to outdo the other in business and trade – because they do not have what they need? Why all the political ploys and underground scheming among the rulers and the leaders – because they they lack the basic wants? Why all the craze among the richest medical facilities and pharma firms even amidst this pandemic to make the most of the people’s plight – because they have to feed their empty stomachs? Why all the border disputes between already vast nations and sovereigns – because there is a matter of life and death? Even within each of us… why all the fret and frenzy in our daily life – because we have to ensure the next square meal?
If only we pause, calm down and ask a few questions to ourselves, we shall come to know so many things about ourselves, so many things that we needlessly think about, so many decisions we unnecessarily take, so many activities that we go about without realising its futility, so many important values we dump for worthless substitutes and so many treasures that we have covered with the sludge of the so-called conventions of the society around and walk on them lamenting our miseries!
The Word this Sunday presents us with three questions:
What is the Lack?
Recently we reflected from prophet Micah those words: you shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be a gnawing hunger within you; you shall put away, but not save; you shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine (Micah 6: 13-15) – does that not seem the experience of many today? We strive and strive, but are never satisfied. We struggle with all our lives, but we never feel fulfilled. But stop, think a while… what is the lack? what is the real lack? Lack of things? Lack of resources? As the Lord asks us today, why do you spend all that you have, on something that does not satisfy you? What is the real lack?
The real lack is the lack of knowledge: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”, cries the Lord through prophet Hosea (4:6). The lack of knowledge is destroying us all; it is destroying humankind; it is destroying the entire universe! The lack of right knowledge, the lack of right thinking, the lack of right choices, the lack of right priorities – this is the lack that is killing us all. Just as the Lord felt it so badly, while he was speaking to that woman at the Samarian well, “if only you knew”… yes, if only we knew! If only we knew the real lack that is in our hearts… if only we realised the real lack that is there in our families… if only we accepted the real lack that affects the society and humanity as whole today…we would be in a better position! If only, we knew what really satisfies! That leads us to the next question we need to ask.
What really satisfies?
Fullness alone! Nothing else can satisfy us. We think “more” of something will satisfy us. It cannot. More will never be enough! More can never satisfy us. We think of increasing something, hoarding up something, stacking up, stocking in….nothing will satisfy us truly. It is fullness alone, that can satisfy us. More pleasure… will it satisfy? No, it will lead to more of it. More wealth… will it satisfy? That is not what we see, those who have more, look for more. More power… will it satisfy? Not until there is someone who still is not subdued. “Give me more,” the world cries… but after that? There will only be more cry for more, and more, and more! Only one thing can satisfy…fullness. Imagine a cup immersed in a tub of water… do you think, it is filled? No, it is in fullness, it does not need to be filled.
Fullness alone can satisfy us. Jesus feeds that crowd of people, with such serenity and calmness and all their frenetic anxiety earlier wondering how to feed and where to get food for so many, just vanishes into thin air. They did nothing to remove that anxiety. They just allowed themselves to be in the presence of that Fullness. The Fullness filled them; the Fullness fulfilled them. Fullness alone can fulfill us too. How much we need today to learn to be still, to be still and know that there is Fullness around!
Where is this Fullness?
Yes, the Fullness satisfies, fulfills, heals, calms… it is true. But where is this Fullness, some can ask. Where is this Fullness, when we are suffering; where is this Fullness when we are so battered by disease and death; where is this Fullness when we are so broken and helpless before forces that are totally out of control? It is again this lack of knowledge that makes us fret. It is a wrong question to ask, where is this Fullness – because we are in the Fullness! Just imagine that fingerling who asked her mother fish, ‘mamma, but you said you will show the ocean… where is it?’
It is such a redundant question to ask, where is this Fullness, because we are in the Fullness, we are surrounded by the Fullness – that is what the Lord said: for I am with you till the end of times. Nothing can separate us from Christ, declares the second reading, because we are part of Christ and Christ is part of us. Now, this Fullness that satisfies us, how does it do?
Fullness invites us from within, to come, eat and drink from God’s love, from God’s generosity, from God’s compassion. In moments of need and struggle, in moments of our crises, the Lord reminds us of Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides, the Fullness who satisfies.
Fullness has chosen us from before the foundation of the world, never to part from us. Just as the disciples tell the Lord that they could send the people away, there are so many things in life that wants to send us away from the Lord… our weaknesses, our sufferings, our temptations, our wrong choices. But the Lord insists, to stay on. Yes, the Fullness remains, because God has chosen to remain with us forever. That is the covenant: I shall be your God and you shall be my children.
Fullness remains with us whether we are conscious of it or not. Nothing separates us from the Lord except our decision to keep ourselves away from Him. In our need, in our troubles, in our struggles, in our concerns…the Lord promises to be with us and provide us with every bit of care we need. Not even death… nothing except our free choice to leave God, to go against God, can separate us from God. That places the entire burden on our part to remain with the Lord.
The Fullness remains, never to part from us. If we choose that Fullness, we shall be immersed in that Fullness…and nothing can separate us: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord, the Fullness of the Image of God, the Fullness that loves us and remains for ever with us! This Fullness alone can satisfy us!
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him.