August 3rd, 2026 (18 Sunday Ordinary A)

Dear brothers and sisters, as Moses fed the people of Israel in the desert and gave them manna to eat when they were hungry, so Jesus Christ, that is the Messiah, gives us himself as the true food that comes down from heaven and gives eternal life. Christ feeds the multitude that find themselves in a deserted place with only two fish and five loves. Christ is inviting us as the apostles to faith. To believe and experience like the apostles and the multitudes that he provides. In the midst of our desert God prepares a banquet for us. This is the experience the apostles have not only that there is plenty to eat but there are even twelve wicker baskets of leftovers. In our life we are tempted many times to believe that we are alone and there is nothing to do but faith in Jesus Christ makes us truly experience eternal life. The Christian experiences that God provides with overabundance. The grace God gives to us is always overflowing with the problem of being able to pass to faith. To know that the kingdom of God is like the mustard seed that from the smallest it becomes the biggest of trees. God would like today to enable us to transcend our reality which many times seems poor and very precarious or insignificant like might seem the two fish and the five loves. The apostles seem in fact to have given up and been defeated. In front of the request of Jesus Christ, they feel it is impossible to feed all that crowd. We, like the apostles forget that Jesus Christ is with us and is God. Christ truly would like to give all of us this experience that he can take away from us our sins and all of our doubts and give us his eternal life. In the middle of our desert and sufferings where we feel hungry and in need God provides his love for us in overabundance.

Peace, Fr. Nicholas Pastor