The Eighth Sunday After Pentecost (1 Cor. 1:10–18; Mt. 14:14–22)

Before the wondrous feeding of the five thousand, the Lord’s disciples wanted to send the people away; but the Lord said to them: ”They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat” (Mt. 14:16; cf. Mk. 6:37). Let us learn this word by heart, and whenever the enemy prompts us to refuse someone who is asking, let us say in the Lord’s name: ”They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat” — and give whatever is at hand. The enemy discourages generosity in many ways, suggesting that the one asking may not deserve to be helped—yet the Lord made no examination of the worthiness of those reclining at table: He fed them all equally; and certainly not all were equally devoted to Him. Some were perhaps among those who afterward cried, ”Crucify him!” (Lk. 23:21; Mk. 15:13–14; Jn. 19:6, 15). Such is also God’s general providence toward us: ”He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mt. 5:45).

If only the Lord would help us to be even a little ”merciful, just as our heavenly Father is merciful!” (Lk. 6:36).