Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 2, 2020 – Year A
Readings: Is 55:1-3 / Ps 145 / Rom 8:35, 37-39 / Mt 14:13-21
by Rev. Salvador Añonuevo, Pastor

Last Friday, Gia Fuda, an 18-year-old girl from Washington state, went missing. Her car was found on a highway, out of gas, after more than a week of searching. Inquiries yielded negative results, but yesterday they found her alive in the heavily wooded Cascade Mountains east of Seattle. After being brought to the hospital, the girl could not coherently explain what really happened to her, or why she ended up in that deserted area in the first place.

In today’s gospel, taken from St. Matthew, we have heard that the Lord Jesus went to a deserted place by Himself. But His disciples knew exactly where He’d gone and why He was there: He was grieving. He had heard that His cousin, John the Baptist, had been killed by Herod. He wanted some time alone to pray.

We will read several times in the scriptures that the Lord would go to a lonely or deserted place to pray. Even though He is God, He is also a human being like us. There are moments when He needs time to recharge.

But on this occasion, the people followed Him. So even though He was grieving for His cousin and friend, John, He spent time curing the sick, and eventually multiplied the loaves to feed more than five thousand men, not counting women and children.

My dear brothers and sisters, if ever there was a human being who lived in this world who really didn’t need to pray, it is the Lord Jesus, because He is God. But He has given His disciples and all of us an example of what we should do when we are lonely, sad, grieving, or bombarded with all sorts of problem and difficulties: We should spend time with God in prayer, because He is the source of all wisdom and strength. And most of all because He is never too busy for us. He is always there, wherever we may be, and He is just a prayer away.