18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A (2026) 

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A 
Isaiah 55:1-3 
Psalm 145:8-9, 15-16, 17-18 (16) 
Romans 8:35, 37-39 
Matthew 14:13-21 
August 2, 2026 

Even when Jesus moved from one place to another, the crowds followed him.  As He saw them, “his heart was moved with pity for them.”  With his Most Sacred Heart, He saw their longing.  He knew their true hunger. 

The disciples saw their physical hunger and rightly so.  Our need for physical nourishment is real.  They knew they had little food for the vast crowd.  Seeing the needs of the people, they said to Jesus, “dismiss the crowd so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.” 

Jesus replies, “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.”  Perhaps they thought He did not know they did not have enough food.  They replied, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”   

For them, it is not even a question of hope.  It is simply reality that they do not have enough food for the vast crowd.  Jesus knows what He can and will do with the “five loaves and two fish.”  Jesus provides no fantastic show to multiply the loaves.  He simply says the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave the loaves to the disciples to distribute to the crowds. 

Then the crowds ate and “were satisfied.” 

What seemed impossible, Jesus has done. 

Not only was there enough bread to satisfy everyone, there were “twelve wicker baskets full” left over.  They ended with more than they began with.  Jesus is the Son of God.  “The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.”   

Jesus fulfills what God promises through the prophet Isaiah, “All you who are thirsty, come to the water…come, without paying and without cost.”  Jesus fed the crowds physically and He fed them with what their souls were thirsting for.  He fed them with the love of God and his providential care.  He did not charge them for the food.  Who could have afforded the bill?  The food that He gave was “without cost” as a gift from God.   

Jesus fed the crowds that day with physical food.  It prefigures the spiritual food He will give his people in the Eucharist.  It also symbolizes how He feeds us with the Word of God.  As God had spoken through Isaiah, “Heed me, and you shall eat well.”   

To “heed” is to pay attention to.  If we heed God’s Word, following what He teaches, we shall “eat well.”  If we heed His Word, God will renew with us His everlasting covenant and “the benefits assured to David.”   

When we heed God’s Word and are feed with the Body and Blood of Jesus, “What will separate us from the love of Christ?”   

Nothing!  Not “anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword!”   

We will face distress, persecution, famine, and the sword, but when we have faith in God and follow His Word, these things can never separate us from the love of God.  Nothing can, not death or life, “nor present things, nor future things…nor any other creature will be able to separate from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   

Evil is real.  Bad things happen in the world but the bad things cannot separate us from the love of God.  The only thing that can separate us from the love of God is sin.  And because God loves us, even when we sin, He offers us the gift of the Sacrament of Reconciliation for us to repent and receive his forgiveness.   

God gives us some much.  He gives us His Word.  He gives us His Mercy.  He gives us the Eucharist.  Embrace the gifts!   

Peace, 

Fr. Jeff