With Opened Bible
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
“All you who are thirsty, come to the water!” (Isaiah 55, 1)
Chapter 55 of the Book of Isaiah begins with an invitation to receive divine favors freely. The thirsty believer can return to the source where everything is a gift and an act of generosity. God reveals His mercy by bestowing happiness upon those who are faithful to Him.
The thirst spoken of in this Sunday's first reading is not physical, like the thirst Israel experienced in the desert (cf. Exodus 17:3). That desire to satisfy an urgent need led to a miracle: the rock at Horeb.
Here, the thirst is spiritual, for God is addressing a people in exile who have lost all spiritual, emotional, and social freedom. This thirst stems from a religious isolation that reflects the distress of life in a harsh and foreign land.
Yet, the Lord God knew how to restore all of this. Through the ministry of the prophet, He promised to quench His people's thirst by granting them freedom and the joy of returning home. Hence, the invitation to eat and drink of wholesome and rich fare.
Far from God and the truth, the world thirsts for truth and justice. It is Jesus, the One sent from heaven, who becomes the drink and food our souls require. He explained this clearly to the Samaritan woman: "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:13–14)
By suggesting to the disciples to feed the crowds, Jesus allows us to discover our true Christian mission: that of feeding and giving drink—both spiritually and physically—to the weakest among us: "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me drink." (Matthew 25:35)
