Working with the Word

Focusing the Gospel

Key words and phrases: dismiss the crowds, buy food for themselves, give them some food yourselves, are all we have, Bring them here to me, he said the blessing, all … were satisfied.

To the point: The rich man in the parable judges he has stored up enough possessions to guarantee a good life without worries—so he thinks. Any reliance on wealth and possessions, however, is pure folly—both worldly possessions and this life are fleeting. What truly matters is the inheritance that only God can give: the fullness of eternal life. What “matters to God” is spending our life dispossessing ourselves of anything which hinders us from growing into the fullness of life.

Connecting the Gospel …

... to the first reading: Come! Come! Come! So compellingly and urgently does God invite us to a feast of rich fare that God provides freely and without cost. Come!

... to experience: Marketing is always playing on our appetites—eat this! buy that! get more! Marketing offers us the false hope of satisfaction. True satisfaction comes only from our giving what we have to God who returns it to us in abundance.

**From Saint Louis University