Give Them Some Food Yourselves August 7

“Give them some food yourselves.” Matthew 14:16

Piety

Lord, take me into a deserted place with only You. Help me to hear only you. Let me sit at your feet and feed me as you fed the five thousand people on the hillside, Lord. And let me, sharing the joy of your presence, feed others.

Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/080706.shtml

In today’s Gospel we see an intensely human and an intensely divine Jesus.

This is a man who, learning of the death of his cousin, presumably his friend, went off by himself. In sorrow? In anger at the injustice?

And this is a man who saw people following him looking for what they did not yet understand. And, in spite of his desire for solitude he “felt pity.”

At the same time this Jesus is divinity who “cured” and “fed.”

This man felt what we feel today. This divinity challenges us to do, in his name, what he did: don’t send them away, “give them some food yourselves.”

He doesn’t leave us alone to figure it out. Throughout human history which is also a record of our salvation history, God has been there with humans and for humans. If we don’t have loaves and fishes in our (admit it, fairly well-stocked) wallets and pantries, we can ask God for them so that we can give them away in His name.

Take stock of our own resources – money, talents, hobbies, time, sense of humor, compassion, muscle, music, ability to speak or read aloud, loving heart, extra clothes…“give them some food yourself.”

In study, prayer and honestly sharing our spiritual walk with other, honest searchers, Cursillo can help us avoid false, comforting prophesies and can help us learn God’s “statutes.” Saturday’s Ultreya in Spotsylvania was a joyous moment. We sat at His feet. And we were fed.

Action

Take 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes to go to a deserted place with the Lord. Shut the door of your office. Turn your chair to the partition of your cubicle. Take the phone off the hook. Close yourself in the laundry room. Sit your kids in front of a Veggie Tale…Be quiet with the Lord. Be fed. Ask Him who and how he would like you to feed. It might be a neighbor, a pest, a politician, even yourself.

De colores!

Beth De Cristofaro