COME TO THE SPRINGS OF LIVING WATER

XVIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Isaiah 55:1-3

In the book of Isaiah, we can find many beautiful passages which raise our spirit, as our hearts are touched by the hand of God, who fills us with love and hope. There are passages that can be read time and again as if we discover them for the first time.

In this Sunday’s passage, with a simple question, we are reminded of the poor and sorrowful situation which we find ourselves in:

“Why spend money on what is not bread,

your wages on what fails to satisfy?”

Indeed, most of the times, when we have a few moments of silence and reflection to look at ourselves and evaluate our lives, we discover that our lives have been wasted and that we have worked in vain. We have spent our energy trying to achieve things that fail to satisfy us. Many times, it is as if we live in a state of delusion and slumber. As a consequence, we suffer from depression and enter into a situation of despair.

We may say that, through these words, the Lord reproaches us, because we looked for life, happiness and peace where there is none. In spite of that, in His love and mercy, the Lord is ready to come to our rescue and offer us free salvation:

“Oh, come to the water all you who are thirsty;

though you have no money, come!

Buy corn without money, and eat,

and, at no cost, wine and milk.”

The solution to our disillusion and despair is in the Lord. And he takes the initiative, inviting us to come to him:

Pay attention, come to me;

listen, and your soul will live.

It is in the Lord that we may find life since he is the only one who can give us the bread of life and lead us to the springs of living water.

The gospel (Mt 14:13-21), with the narrative of the feeding of five thousand, presents Jesus as the one who comes to fulfil the promise in Isaiah. Jesus came to usher in the messianic age in which God fulfils his promise, establishing an “an everlasting covenant”, a covenant of love and mercy. In Jesus Christ, the love of God proves so profound that, according to Paul, nothing can separate us from “the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ro 8:39).