Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Throughout his long career as a theologian, Pope Benedict XVI (formerly Joseph Ratzinger) advocated the idea of a priest as a humble hero, though not in those specific terms. Ratzinger’s conception of the priest as a humble hero can be traced to the Augustinian roots of his theology. St. Augustine portrayed Christ as a humble hero in references to the act of kenosis; first, there is a heroic humility of Christ becoming human, and secondly, Christ’s heroic humility is manifested in his suffering and death. For Ratzinger, there is a call for a priest to imitate Christ’s humble heroism in his kenosis. Moreover, Ratzinger envisions a priest as a humble hero in the sense that he is a spiritual hero, a man of prayer who is recollected, peaceful, and quiet, rather than an agitated activist who can carry a social and political mission. As a spiritual hero, a priest then must lead people to Jesus and help them to achieve inner peace and freedom.
In the Gospel reading today, we hear that Jesus withdraws into a deserted place. Why does he withdraw? One possibility is to delay the passion, as He himself says his time has not yet come (John 7:6). But Matthew says that he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place, which means it is not a place close to the road. In other words, Jesus withdraws apart from the crowd, and he does this so that the crowd won’t be able to reach him. One plausible interpretation is that Jesus Himself needed time to recharge after the horrible news about the death of John the Baptist. So, He needs time for himself to pray and reflect in solitude. In other words, Jesus knows there is a time for active ministry and a time for spiritual nourishment. Nevertheless, when the crowd manages to come to Jesus, He does not want to dismiss them like His disciples want to do. Jesus gives them some food by multiplying the five loaves and two fishes. One should note that the Gospels sometimes mention that Jesus prays when He works a miracle, and sometimes they do not mention Jesus’s prayer. In this story, He prays as He looks up to heaven and blesses the bread and fish. If we read Matthew 14 as a whole, we will know that after performing the miracle, Jesus finally dismisses the crowd, and then He goes up the mountain to pray alone (Matthew 14:23). So as a priest, Jesus is showing an example: He humbles himself, as a man of prayer who is recollected, peace, and quiet. At the same time, He is also a man of action, willing to sacrifice his quiet time to help the needy. Then, He withdraws again for spiritual nourishment.