Aug 2, 2020 - 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Is 55:1-3; Rom 8:35, 37-39; Mt 14:13-21)
In the passage before this Gospel reading, Jesus had just learned that John the Baptist was beheaded. He wanted to go off to a deserted place by himself. But after Jesus arrived at that place, did he find the solitude he was looking for? Far from it. A crowd of 5,000 waited for him, people who were there not to comfort him in his anguish, nor to mourn with him, but rather, to ask him to attend to their personal needs, to cure them, and to hear him speak. What did Jesus do? “His heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick.”
Where did the resilience come from, that allowed Jesus to face the multitudes when all he really wanted to do was to be alone? The answer was most likely through his daily prayer life with God. The Bible has numerous passages in which Jesus speaks to his need to be by himself in prayer with his Father, to nurture and deepen his relationship with God, so that in times of deep distress he would have the wellspring of grit and compassion necessary to rise up to the occasion and deal with the hardship of his life on earth.
And so, it is with us. We need to understand that our daily prayers and quiet times of reflection and solitude are as important for our well-being as daily exercise and healthy eating is for our bodies. Focused time spent in prayer with God can strengthen our resolve and provide us with guideposts to follow when we are faced with difficult days. We can pray for strength and courage to endure the hardships. Most of all, we can pray to not let fear and anger push our love for each other out of our hearts. We can pray that through all hardship, we will love like God does, and not count the costs.