OMELIE / Omelie EN

02 ago 2026

August 2, 2026 - 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A

August 2, 2026 - 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A

First Reading: Isaiah 55:1-3 from Ps 144; Second Reading: Rom 8:35, 37-39; Gospel: Matthew 14:13-21

Human thirst and hunger are a serious problem. Resolving it requires a certain intelligence. The prophet Isaiah wants us to understand this. He asks: "Why do you spend... your earnings on what does not satisfy?" The prophet had observed that some, if not many, spend and squander on useless, if not downright harmful, things. To quench our thirst and hunger, we must learn, and therefore listen to those who have wisdom and understanding. Who will we listen to? "Incline your ear and come to me; listen and you will live," says the Lord. We will listen to the One who loves us and certainly does not deceive us, and we will immediately understand that the thirst and hunger He refers to is not only that of the stomach, but even more so that of the soul, the thirst and hunger of the heart.

Men are generally "stiff-necked" (Exodus 33:3), always attentive to earthly life, to the needs of the body, to material needs. God knows this, and therefore begins by speaking in this language, hoping to gain deeper attention. This is what happened in the desert, as the people walked behind Moses. Jesus is the Son of God, and he has the same attentiveness. When he sees the great crowd following him so that the sick may be healed by him, and listening to him, he feels compassion. The disciples interpret this compassion of the Lord as a desire for everyone to have something to eat. Thus we also see how they think problems should be solved: "He sends the crowds away so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves." Material, real, and urgent problems, in their opinion, should be solved as everyone in this world generally does: by using money.

Jesus is inaugurating the kingdom of heaven, and so he also finds solutions for material problems that are and will be typical of this new kingdom. It is not just human beings who are at work here, but God himself is present and active. Our material problems become divine, spiritual problems; they become opportunities for God to reveal himself as Father, so that we can learn and be convinced that we are brothers and sisters. And then Jesus surprises them: "They need not go away; you yourselves give them something to eat." Their reasoning and their daily experience, though rich in goodness, do not comprehend what their Master is saying. The crowd is very large and their food reserves are completely inadequate.

Jesus's response, which becomes a precious lesson, is seen by looking at his hands and his eyes. In his hands are five loaves of bread, his eyes raised to heaven. Who is up there? Is there someone capable of doing something? And what? From Jesus's mouth come words of blessing and thanksgiving. Why give thanks for, if we see nothing? Give thanks because the Father is Father, a true Father who needs nothing but our faith, our trust, our humility to be recognized as Father.

And behold, the loaves are broken, and Jesus continues breaking them. And the pieces fill the hands of the astonished and unaware disciples, and from their hands they pass into those of the men sitting on the grass. These men had only to obey, "sit on the grass," as Jesus had commanded. The required obedience, "sit on the grass," was easy to perform, even if it required overcoming one's own reasoning and demonstrating trust before seeing anything concrete. It was an obedience similar to that of Abraham, who, at the word of God, set out without knowing where to go.

The disciples' amazement increases when, obediently, they even pick up the leftover pieces. Each of them is weighed down by a basket. Bread will continue to satiate men's hunger and thirst for love, which they receive from above, where He is present whom they have never seen and cannot see. But is it only bread and pieces of bread that they saw? Did they simply witness a miracle?

No, the most visible miracle is the one that happens in secret and remains hidden in their hearts and minds. They are beginning to understand who their Lord is. He is not someone who heals and now also feeds everyone; he is not just that: he is the one who gave the manna in the desert; he is so united with the Father that he allows Him to do what He wills. They are beginning to understand that he and God the Father are one. Only they understand this. The others do not yet. They understand that there is nothing, no problem that can separate us "from the love of Christ." They will be able to say, and must declare, that we cannot and must not fear anything, not even "hunger, nakedness, danger, the sword." Jesus' hands are capable of holding everything in their hands, and his eyes are capable of turning to heaven to obtain the Father's love for entire crowds!