OT18MO1

Monday 18th Week in Ordinary Time Year 1

Matthew 14:13-21: Looking up to heaven, he said the blessing and gave the loaves to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.

First Reading: Numbers 11:4b-15

The children of Israel lamented,
          “Would that we had meat for food!
We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt,
          and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks,
          the onions, and the garlic.
But now we are famished;
          we see nothing before us but this manna.”
Manna was like coriander seed and had the color of resin.
When they had gone about and gathered it up,
          the people would grind it between millstones or pound it in a mortar,
          then cook it in a pot and make it into loaves,
          which tasted like cakes made with oil.
At night, when the dew fell upon the camp, the manna also fell.
When Moses heard the people, family after family,
          crying at the entrance of their tents,
          so that the Lord became very angry, he was grieved.
“Why do you treat your servant so badly?” Moses asked the Lord.
“Why are you so displeased with me
          that you burden me with all this people?
Was it I who conceived all this people?
Or was it I who gave them birth,
          that you tell me to carry them at my bosom,
          like a foster father carrying an infant,
          to the land you have promised under oath to their fathers?
Where can I get meat to give to all this people?
For they are crying to me,
          ‘Give us meat for our food.’
I cannot carry all this people by myself,
          for they are too heavy for me.
If this is the way you will deal with me,
          then please do me the favor of killing me at once,
          so that I need no longer face this distress.”

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 81:12-13, 14-15, 16-17

R./ Sing with joy to God our help.

“My people heard not my voice,
and Israel obeyed me not;
So I gave them up to the hardness of their hearts;
they walked according to their own counsels.”
R./ Sing with joy to God our help.

“If only my people would hear me,
and Israel walk in my ways,
Quickly would I humble their enemies;
against their foes I would turn my hand.”
R./ Sing with joy to God our help.

“Those who hated the Lord would seek to flatter me,
but their fate would endure forever,
While Israel I would feed with the best of wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would fill them.”
R./ Sing with joy to God our help.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 14:13-21

When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist,
he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.
The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns.
When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick.
When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said,
"This is a deserted place and it is already late;
dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages
and buy food for themselves."
He said to them, "There is no need for them to go away;
give them some food yourselves."
But they said to him,
"Five loaves and two fish are all we have here."
Then he said, "Bring them here to me,"
and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves,
and gave them to the disciples,
who in turn gave them to the crowds.
They all ate and were satisfied,
and they picked up the fragments left over–
twelve wicker baskets full.
Those who ate were about five thousand men,
not counting women and children.

Liturgy Alive

Opening Prayer

God, our compassionate Father,
you let your Son, Jesus Christ give food
to all who are hungry in any way.
Make us compassionate for all the poor of our day.
Teach us to see their needs,
to suffer with them, to share in their anguish,
to bind their wounds and to appease their hungers.
Give us the strength to do all these
by the strength of the food of himself
that Jesus gives us in each Eucharist.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord.

Liturgy of the Word

First Reading Introduction: In the year of the jubilee you shall return, everyone of you, to your own property.
The first readings in the 18th and the 19th weeks are taken from the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy. It describes the journey of God’s people through the desert, with the trials of the difficult journey, the temptations of discouragement, lack of faith and trust, material and materialistic needs, infidelities and complaints. We have to learn to place them in the context of our own itinerary through life as Christians, our own deserts with temptations, difficulties and grumbling.

Gospel Reading Introduction: Command me to come to you on the water.
It is regrettable that the Lectionary has omitted that part of the remark of Jesus that gives the foundation of this episode: “Why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?” Jesus redefines the true understanding of purity. One is pure not because of ritual ablutions but because of one’s fidelity to God’s law. Human traditions that obstruct God’s law should be abolished. After all, it is the spirit of the law that counts, not the letter.

General Intercessions

–   For the pope, bishops, and priests, that they may satisfy the people’s hunger for love and justice, for truth and hope by proclaiming with conviction and love the Lord’s message of the Good News, we pray:
–   For the political leaders of the world, for scientists and economists, that they may cooperate to solve the problem of hunger in the world and bring to a hungry world not only food but also dignity, justice, and peace, we pray:
–   For the sick and the lonely, for the handicapped and those who are discouraged, for those who hunger for love and acceptance, that our love and concern may be signs to them that God does not abandon them, we pray:

Prayer over the Gifts

God our Father,
we give you thanks for bread and wine
and for making them the signs
of your Son’s presence in our midst.
Through him, we bring before you
the hungers and aspirations of all.
Let him multiply here for us
the bread of life to make us strong
and the wine of joy to give us hope.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord.

Prayer after Communion

God our Father,
through the bread of life
of your Son, Jesus Christ,
multiply in us the capacity to love.
Give us the courage to put into practice
the words spoken to us by your Son:
“You yourselves give people to eat.”
Help us to share our food with them
but also our joy and compassion,
our hopes and our love.
We ask this in the name of Jesus, the Lord.

Blessing

That Jesus is sharing the food of himself with us in the Eucharist is for us a double sign: that we have to care for the hungry and do what we can to help them. A second, that we too, commit ourselves to one another, putting ourselves at the service of each other. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.