Below is my homily for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A. It is based on these readings: Is 55:1-3; Ps 145; Rom 8:35, 37-39; Mt 14:13-21

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God keeps his promises. Today we get a great lesson in God’s fidelity through a look at history. We get to see, through the words of Scripture, how God has worked in the last several thousand years to carry out his plan, to see how this plan for the salvation of the world can never be derailed, no matter what we do.

Promises to King David
We begin by going back 3,000 years ago, to King David’s time. David, through the prophet Nathan, received a message from God. In this message, God promised certain things to David, saying: “I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm…. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. … I will not withdraw my favor from him … Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever” (2 Samuel 7:12-16). Great news for King David! His kingdom will endure and his descendant will be a “son of god” and a king who will reign forever!

But history shows that David’s Kingdom did eventually collapse. It was conquered by the Assyrians and Babylonians. It seemed like God’s promise was broken. Things didn’t play out like they expected.

Isaiah told those promise would be upheld
Fast forward 500 years after King David, to the time when our 1st reading, from Isaiah, was written (about 2,500 years ago). At the end of that reading, the Lord promised, again, that he would keep that promise he made to David, saying “I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David.” It seemed that promise had been broken, but here God’s saying that he will still keep it. David’s benefits will be granted. He explained how the promise will be kept by describing a banquet where we can come to feast. “All you who are thirsty come to the water! You who have no money, come receive grain and eat. Drink wine and milk!”

In that reading we were called us to “heed” the Lord, to “listen, that [we] may have life.” For those who listen, in other words, those benefits assured to King David centuries before, will be given. There will be great feasting, and all of it free.

Jesus Christ
Now, fast forward another 500 years or so to the time of Jesus—2,000 years ago, to our Gospel. It still seemed, at that time, the promises God made a thousand years previous had not been kept. The Jewish people were still waiting for God to “renew the everlasting covenant.” They were still waiting for the Messiah, a King who would fulfill the promises made to David and establish a lasting kingdom, who would provide a heavenly “banquet” for those who listened.

In the multiplication of the loaves they got a hint that, in Jesus, they might finally see their promises fulfilled.

The people came to “heed,” to “listen” to Jesus. They listened to his teachings for so long, and in such a desolate place, that they began to get hungry. Rather than send them away, Jesus provided a banquet for them. How he did it should sound familiar to us—it reminds us of what’s coming in the life of Jesus. The Last Supper, the crucifixion, and the Eucharist, and even the priesthood are prefigured here.

The Mass
In other words, this miracle foreshadows the Mass. The people brought forward their gifts—the meager 5 loaves and 2 fish. As he prepared the meal, the Gospel tells us that he took the bread and “looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples…” These same words, “took,” “blessed,” “broke,” and “gave” were used to describe the Last Supper. They are likewise found in our Eucharistic Prayer, when we hear “…he took bread in his sacred hands and looking up to heaven, to you, his almighty Father, he gave you thanks and praise. He broke the bread, gave it to his disciples…” Likewise, after the consecration of the wine in the chalice, we hear the words “this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant….” It’s also interesting to note that Jesus gave the loaves to his apostles who, in turn, fed the people. In Jesus’ plan, the multitudes are fed through the hands of his priests.

Those present might have thought “finally, the Messiah has come. He has fed us with this banquet, as promised. We have heard and heeded his teaching, as promised. Now, if only he would be crowned king and, as promised centuries before to David, renew the everlasting covenant.”

But, then, Jesus was crucified. We, in our sin, killed him. Had God abandoned his people, still refusing to keep the promises made to David? As Fr. Robert Barron put it, “The cross is sin in the world, putting to death God’s grace.”

Paul wrote to the Romans in our 2nd reading that death could not separate us from the love of God. Was Paul wrong? Of course not. Today, two thousand years later, we know that even death did not thwart God’s plan. Jesus rose from the dead.

The Cross, a device of torture used by us sinners to reject God’s ultimate gift of grace, himself, has become for us a symbol of God’s complete, self-giving love, a love that overcomes even death.

We see, now, that God has indeed kept the promises he made to King David 3,000 years ago, the promises he reminded us of 2,500 years ago through Isaiah, and which he fulfilled in the Last Supper, his death, and his resurrection.

At times we often doubt that God is with us and feel like God has abandoned us. At those times, remember salvation history. God kept all his promises, but not as we expected. Paul was right—anguish, distress, persecution, famine, peril—wars, the collapse of nations, none of this can separate us from God.

Only sin, which comes from within us, can do that. But even when we do sin, we should recall that we’ve already done the worst possible thing—we’ve sinned in killing Our Lord on the Cross. And even that did not stop him. God even then kept his promises and even now constantly calls us to return to his forgiveness and to feast at his Banquet—the Mass.

So when we hear Jesus, through the priest in the confessional, say to us “I absolve you from your sins,” or when we hear Jesus, through the priest, say at the altar “this is my body,” we can believe those words. And no matter what happens in our world, our country and its economy, or in our families—God’s plan will prevail, and his promises will be kept.

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The image above is of a 5th century mosaic in the floor of the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and the Fishes in Israel.

It’s tough to describe the experience of being ordained to the priesthood. I often explained to family and friends that my ordination was not a mere “graduation” after years of study. Rather, it was my wedding day. On that day I offered my life, completely, to my spouse the Catholic Church.

After years of study and prayer, I fell in love with the Church. After so much preparation and with a deep understanding of what a priest is, I arrived at the Cathedral on June 29th with my classmate, Deacon Bill Ruelle, for our ordination day.

Early in the Rite of Ordination the bishop asked Fr. Richter, our vocation director, if we have been found worthy. He responded “After inquiry among the Christian people and upon the recommendation of those responsible, I testify that he has been found worthy.”

What a powerful statement this is for a man to hear. By their own merits, seminarians realize they are not up to the task of serving God’s people as priests. For years we question our ability to set aside our own wills and let God work through us, we strive to prepare for the intellectual challenges that await us as we serve as priests. Finally, the Church Herself has declared us worthy.

Next, the bishop proclaimed “Relying on the help of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, we choose these men, our brothers, for the Order of the Priesthood,” to which the people responded “Thanks be to God” and with applause. To hear the bishop, as our own successor of the apostles and representative of the Universal Church, say that “we choose” you is humbling.

Just like in a marriage, I was chosen by my spouse and both of us have uttered “yes.”

After the homily we made various promises to Bishop Zipfel. We promised to discharge the office of priesthood “without fail,” to be “worthy fellow workers with the Order of Bishops,” to preach and teach the Catholic faith, to celebrate “faithfully and reverently, in accord with the Church’s tradition” the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation. We promised to “pray without ceasing” for you and for the whole Church, and we promised obedience to Bishop Zipfel and to his successors. As the title of Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s book reminds us, “the priest is not his own.”

These promises seem impossible to keep, and indeed by our own efforts they are. That is why we then lay prostrate before the altar as the beautiful litany of saints was sung, asking them all for their intercession as we undertook this new life.

Having asked the saints to pray for us, the bishop then performed the two essential things required for an ordination: the laying on of hands and the prayer of ordination. At that point, we became priests. We were vested in chasubles and our hands were anointed with Sacred Chrism, consecrating them for the Lord’s service.

Not long after, the most emotional part of the liturgy for me came about: the “kiss of peace” in which all of the priests who were present (there were about 70) came forward to welcome me to the priesthood and the presbyterate of Bismarck. This caught me off guard. For years I reflected on how I would feel as I lay prostrate on the floor, or during the prayer of ordination, or during the anointing of my hands. When I had attended ordinations in the past, the “kiss of peace” seemed tiresome and long as, one after another, the priests came up and gave awkward hugs to the new priests.

My experience, as that new priest, was totally different. One after another my brother priests approached and uttered “welcome to the priesthood.” Young priests, elderly priests, priests from all over the country. All of them, my brother priests. These are the men with whom I will serve for decades to come. I was given a warm welcome into the presbyterate.

Since that day I have had the great privilege of offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, of sharing my love for the Gospel with all of you, and of dispensing God’s mercy to you in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Some of those days I have been exhausted at the end of the day, but it was a joy-filled exhaustion. Like Christ, on those days, I have spent myself for his people. Please pray for me that I be a humble, holy priest who leads the people of the Diocese of Bismarck closer to our Lord.

God Bless,
Fr. Jason Signalness