Monsignor Enrique Díaz Díaz shares with Exaudi readers his reflection on the  Gospel of this Sunday, August 2, 2026,   entitled:  “They all ate until they were satisfied . ”

Isaiah 55:1-3:  “Come and eat”

Psalm 144: “ You open your hand, Lord, and satisfy us with your bounty.”

Romans 8:35, 37-39:  “Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.”

Matthew 14:13-21:  “They all ate and were satisfied”

Regarding the distribution of resources, some exaggerate and present positive results, but the truth is that hunger and malnutrition persist in many regions. Despite the beauty of our country and the wealth within it, we have many areas considered to be in extreme poverty, plagued by malnutrition, infant mortality, illiteracy, and recurring diseases. The contrast between the millions spent on superfluous and unnecessary items—weapons, protection, propaganda, and empty rhetoric—while malnourished children and anemic women continue to suffer in our land is insulting. Politicians disguise the reality of the hunger felt in the stomach and mouth of every person with percentages and average figures. I would like to believe that the figures presented as progress are true, but on the meager tables of thousands of families, we see more misery and less food every day. In the face of a wasteful world, the words of the prophet Isaiah ring particularly relevant today:  “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your wages on what does not nourish?”   If the most important thing is to live with dignity, why do we follow the rules of such an unjust, unbalanced, and superficial world?

Jesus’ miracles reveal his divinity and power, but they also contain teachings that challenge our ordinary attitudes. Thus, today’s miracle is not merely the beautiful scene of the multiplication of the loaves that fed that multitude, but inevitably places us before the wave of migrants, farmers, laborers, and the unemployed, who, driven by hunger, seem to be collapsing. Symbolic and striking is the detail that describes the specific moment when the disciples say,  “We are in a remote place, and it is getting dark… we have only five loaves of bread and two fish.”  We could now add many other circumstances that make it difficult to provide food for the hungry multitudes: scarcity, population growth, economic downturn, and a long list of other reasons that might seem to excuse us. But faced with the hunger and need of our brothers and sisters, Jesus admits no excuses:  “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”  Jesus does not accept our withdrawal or our indifference; he involves us in a problem that is ours and to which we cannot be indifferent.

The disciples do not adopt the indifferent stance of many of our contemporaries who blame those who suffer from poverty and hunger. They strengthen the system by directly accusing its victims, as we are seeing in the proposed solutions to overcome the global economic crisis. The aim is to protect the wealthy at the expense of the poor. Saint John Chrysostom used to say that the division of humanity into rich and poor makes some inhuman and others subhuman. But now they want to conceal everything with anonymity and think that no one is to blame for all these injustices, as if natural laws were responsible and not the greed of men. However, the disciples also do not want to take responsibility and look for the easy way out: “It’s their problem,” we dismiss them, and that’s that. Jesus never allows a solution that endangers people, breaks down the community, and fosters injustice. He demands that his disciples take responsibility and contribute what they have to form the common table. Even in the worst circumstances, Jesus never abandons his dream of showing us that another world is possible, that we can live and share as children of one Father. That bread, broken and shared, far from diminishing, multiplies. A common table, where everyone can be satisfied, is certainly a gift and a miracle from God, but it also requires human willingness and sharing.

“You give them something to eat,” is Jesus’s proposal, and he’s not joking. A brother should not turn his back on his brother, and every person has within themselves the capacity to solve the problems that affect the distribution of life’s goods. That capacity exists, but it must be put into action. The disciple makes the easiest excuse: he cites poverty as an insurmountable obstacle. For Jesus, that is not a definitive impediment to the distribution of goods. The difficulty lies in the heart of the person who clings to possession and control. Indeed, the sense of possession veils and obscures the possibilities of sharing. Don’t we build walls so that others don’t come to bother us with their hunger and misery? Don’t we spend more on weapons and wars than on solutions to hunger? Don’t we turn our backs with the excuse that we’re barely getting by? For Jesus, there is no excuse, and today he continues to insist: You give them something to eat.

But it doesn’t say we should give crumbs, as rich countries sometimes do by sending waste to those in need. If we examine the account, we find dialogue, listening to the Word, a shared table; he asks them to sit on the grass, as someone who is free and able to participate with others does; there is full participation and mutual collaboration. They give everything they have, even if it is very little, but they are also willing to receive; only this giving and openness makes the miracle possible. A miracle of those times, but also a miracle today: the words Matthew tells us are very reminiscent of the Eucharist: he took…he looked up to heaven…he blessed…he distributed them. The Eucharist is the greatest expression of grace and self-giving. It is the greatest miracle, but it must also be the greatest commitment; it carries with it a very strong social duty toward our brothers and sisters in need. Otherwise, the Eucharist becomes a lie and a contradiction. Eucharist is sharing.

Lord, renew us in the image of your Son, help us to imitate him and to be consistent with our faith. Amen.