Sunday – 18th Week in Ordinary Time – A

In today's blessed Sunday readings, we get a glimpse of one of the most beautiful Eucharistic and hope-filled combinations of readings in the Sunday Lectionary, where we learn, as it is impressed upon us, that God not only satisfies our deepest hunger, but He Himself becomes our food.

Our first reading is taken from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, chapter 55. These verses come from the closing chapters of Isaiah, often called Second Isaiah, that is, chapters 40 to 55, where the people of Israel are living in exile in Babylon, and they have lost everything: their homeland, their Temple, the king, and much of their hope. And so, into this despair, God speaks not of condemnation or punishment, but of an invitation: “Come to the water.” (Isaiah 55:1) Notice who is invited. Not the wealthy in this passage, not the successful, not the worthy, but those who are thirsty, those who have nothing, those who cannot pay. And so the banquet God offers is completely free, because salvation is always God's gift before it is ever our collaboration with Him. The everlasting covenant recalls God's promise to David, King David, now fulfilled not in an earthly kingdom, but ultimately in Christ.

In our second reading, Saint Paul is writing to Christians in Rome who are beginning to experience hostility and persecution. We know that up until the fourth century, Christians were persecuted for not bowing to the gods of the state, false gods, nonexistent gods. And yet they were thrown to the lions in the Colosseum for this. Saint Paul's question is rhetorical: “What will separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:35) Then he lists the very things that frightened Christians, especially back then: persecution, lack of food, famine, danger, death itself. And yet Saint Paul answers with extraordinary confidence. Why? Because he himself had an experience with the Risen Christ, the living God, the One who is, who was, and who will always be by our side. Saint Paul reminds the early Christians that Christ's love is stronger than every suffering, and that Christian life is not the absence of hardship. It is the certainty that Christ is with us through every difficulty, through every dark moment that we encounter in our lives.

In the Gospel, Jesus has just learned that John the Baptist was beheaded by King Herod, and He withdraws to grieve, even in His human nature, even though He knows that great glory now surrounds John the Baptist in the afterlife. But in His humanity, Jesus grieves over the suffering that John had to endure. And instead of sending the masses of people away, Matthew records that “his heart was moved with pity.” (Matthew 14:14) The Greek word that is used here describes compassion that comes from the depths of one's being. The word pity that is used is the same word often used to describe God's mercy.