Neville Kyrke-Smith writes a Reflection for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
As a young child or even as a grown up is there anything much better than the invitation to come to the table to eat? ‘Tea’s ready!’ ‘Supper’s on the table’ ‘Hurry up!’
The invitation is issued even more importantly today (Isaiah 55: 1-3) : ‘Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread?’
Can you begin to imagine then being invited by Christ to eat with him? Wow! Yet, that is what happens in the Gospel today (Matthew 14:13-21) and it happens every single time Mass is celebrated.
We are invited. How on earth can we say ‘no’? For the bread is the Body of Christ, offered for us, who sustains us in life. Amen.