2 August 2021
Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Sometimes, we are able to look around at our lives and realize how much we have received from God. Why does God give us the good things we have from Him? Today’s gospel gives us an insight into this. After spending the day teaching and healing the crowds, the disciples tell Jesus that He must dismiss the crowds so that they can eat. Jesus’ response? “There is no need for them to go away” (Mt. 14:15). This is why Jesus multiplies the fishes and the loaves: to keep the people close to Him.
Whatever goods we have been given out of God’s abundance, it is so that we may stay close to Him. Ask yourself: do you use the goods of your life to keep you near Jesus? In general, St. Ignatius notes that we may know we are close to Jesus in consolation if we are growing in the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. More concretely, do the goods in your life make it easier or harder to believe what the Church teaches, to look upon Jesus as your sure and only salvation, and to serve God and His people (most especially the poor) with all your heart? Whatever you have, give thanks to God, and use it so that you never leave the side of Jesus.