Homily
for Eighteenth Sunday of Year A- Fr. Udoekpo, M.
God’s Hands Feeds Us and Nothing
Should Separate Us from the Love of God
v Isa
55:1-3
v Ps
145:8-9, 15-18
v Rom
8:35, 37-39
v Matt
14:13-21
In the past two days, Friday and Saturday, we celebrated the
memorials of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, the
Jesuit, and St. Alphonsus Liguori, the founder of the Redemptoris. We reflected
as well on the readings of the day, from Jeremiah and Matthew 14. Both readings
pointed not only to the sufferings and persecution of Jeremiah, but to the
beheading of John the Baptist, because he discouraged Herod and Herodias from
cheating on Philip, their brother and husband.
In the midst of these sufferings and persecutions the
readings of today, from Isaiah 55, Romans 8 and Matthew, 14, tend to quickly
turn things around and reassures us of God’s love. He feeds us. God provides
for us. Therefore, nothing should ever, ever, separate us from the love of God (Rom
8:35, 37-39).
In Isaiah of Babylon, the first reading( Isa 55:1-3), God
appears, figuratively, mysteriously to Isaiah, the Suffering Servant, and to
those suffering in exile; to those who have lost their land, and to those who
have lost loved ones, and some livelihoods and encourages them saying: “All you
who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain
and eat; come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk”. Then, God
went on to say, “I will renew you with the everlasting covenant, the benefits
assured to David,” in 2 Samuel Chapter7, in spite of David’s ups and downs!
No matter the brokenness, the sufferings, the tragedy, the
persecution, the deprivations, the loss God’s faithful people experienced, in
the past, in history, in the exodus account, God watches over them. He provides
for them. He keeps his everlasting covenant of love with them (the berith, ‘olam). So
also with us today. Don’t think because of this virus, or the loss of your
loved ones, or livelihood, or our struggle to manage the mask, that God has abandoned
us? No. He has not, provided we remain obedient, and loyal to him.
The same message is heard from the lips of the psalmist, that “the
hands of Lord feeds, us he answers all our needs (Ps 145:16). And St. Paul who
also knew what sufferings and persecutions looked like, reminded the Church in
Rome, of course, each of us today, in Romans 8, 35, 37-39 that nothing should ever
separate us from the love of God. He does it so rhetorically, saying
“What will separate us
from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, of famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things we conquer over-whelming
through him who loved us. For I am convinced(Paul says) that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, no present things, nor future things, nor
powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Jesus
also in the Gospel did not shy away in reminding, his early disciples, and us
that no matter what, that God provides on, our needs and protects us! Don’t
forget, the feeding of the multitude in today’s gospel, happened soon after the
horrific incidence of the persecution and killing of John the Baptist in
Matthew 14:1-12. Though Christ and his disciples had withdrew to a lonely place
in the boat because of the suffering meted on John the Baptist, vv. 13-21,
Jesus, God’s Son, quickly, like his Father who fed Isaiah’s generation (Isa
55:1-3), reassures his followers that the Lord has never, and will never abandon
them, through this miraculous feeding with a multiplied five loaves and two
fish, with a twelve wicker basket left over!
All
of us can relate to today’s bible lesson. We are witnessing our own challenges
in different forms, today, including this ongoing covid-19’ threat. Though many
may have lost their jobs, lives and livelihood, a lot of stress have come to
us, in different forms, in areas of education, marketing, worship gatherings, and
distancing in relationship, the God of Israel of Isaiah 55; the God of Paul in
Romans 8, the God of today’s Matthews Gospel that fed the multitude, with 12
baskets full of fragments left, will never abandon. Therefore, nothing should
ever separate us from the love of God (Rom 8). Or, as the Psalmist had put it,
let us be reassured that “the hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our
needs” (Ps 145:16).
Reflection Questions:
1.
What could separate you from the love of God?
2.
What prevents you from realizing that God is the provider of life’s essentials?
3.
What do you make of the Suffering Servant of God in Isaiah 55 and Jesus feeding
the multitude in Mtt 14:13-21 soon after the shocking beheading John the
Baptist in vv. 1-12?
