Homily for Monday of the 18th Week in Ordinary Time

Different people react in various ways to the same situation. In today's Gospel, we see a noticeable difference between Jesus's and the disciples' reactions when confronted with a large, hungry crowd in the wilderness. The disciples wanted Jesus to send the crowd away, but Jesus urged His disciples to try to feed the crowd. He said, "Give them some food yourselves."

At first, the disciples objected that they couldn't find enough food to feed the crowd. However, Jesus prevailed and urged them to bring the little food they could find to Him. Despite their doubts, the disciples obeyed Jesus' command and brought the food to Him. With those meager resources, the Lord fed the crowd with the help of His obedient disciples.

The Gospel message suggests that the Lord will always motivate us to help others, even when we feel that we don't have enough resources. These resources are not just material possessions, but also our time, talents, and spiritual gifts. If we are generous with all our resources, the Lord will use them in incredible ways.

The Lord can accomplish wonders through the very ordinary and sometimes unpromising resources and gifts that we possess. Like the disciples in the Gospel, we must do our part, but the Lord always does much more. However, if we are unwilling to do what we can with what we have, the Lord's capacity for ministry to others is limited. The Lord needs our resources, however small and seemingly inadequate they may be, to continue His good work among us and the world.