Matthew 14
“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labour for that which does not satisfy?”
Through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, the Lord awakens us in the first reading of this Sunday. This is so true as we so often waste our hard-earn money for useless vanities. Just let us take a look at our basement or garage or storage room or corners of our living room. How many of us can say these places are cleared and empty? Let us open our fridges and deep freezers. Some of us might find some food as old as fridges or freezers. But we continue to shop and buy.
I wonder if things on earth can truly satisfy us. Millionaires want to be billionaires. Billionaires want to own the whole market. Death is a blessing for mankind as no politician in power has lived over a hundred years. But, still, the whole world seems to agree that mankind’s dignity hangs on development and advancement. Everyone knows all die. But we buy things for many generations while we throw them away before their life-cycles.
The prophet opens his mouth again:
Everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and you that have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.”
What does the Lord tell us here? Idealistic communism? Or a technological paradise where automatic machines and artificial intelligence liberate mankind from labour?
Today Jesus feeds his crowds at a deserted place – a grassy wilderness nearby a lakeshore away from villages and towns. No grain field nor orchard. These unprepared crowds over five thousand had only five loaves of bread and two fish. And no resources, no money.
Now, Christ reveals what can fulfill us. It is not satisfaction. It is fulfillment. It is not gratification. It is happiness. It is not possession. It is a union. Only the Lord fulfills the void of our soul and spirit. Only in the union with the Lord do we find true fulfillment and happiness. Jesus shows he is the true bread and true drink. And he wants the New Covenant with us to give himself and fulfill us.
“Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
I will make with an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.”
