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FROM A READING FOR JULY 31, EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
'Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.' Isaiah 55:3

I've always struggled with "Mass stipends." Paying for a sacred action runs counter to all I've learned about my faith. The Eucharist is a holy action, far beyond anything humans can control with money.

The official explanation for the practice goes something like this: "We don't pay for a Mass. We just pay on the 'occasion' of a Mass."

The graces which come from any one Mass are infinite. They're applied equally to every person who ever lived. The individual who "pays" for the Mass receives no more benefits than someone who's never even heard of Jesus of Nazareth.

Catholics give stipends simply because we're a generous folk. There's no connection between the money we give and the graces we (or the Mass-intentioned individuals) receive.

Sunday's readings cut through doubletalk. "All you who are thirsty," Deutero-Isaiah proclaims (Isaiah 55:1-3), "come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat; come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk! Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy?"

Generous God
As we know from Elisha's healing of Naaman in II Kings, to be paid for performing an act of God is to claim the paid human agent is responsible for the act, not God. Deutero-Isaiah couldn't be clearer: The good Yahweh is about to shower on the exiled Israelites won't cost them one red shekel.

This mindset about God's generosity is behind Paul's oft-repeated question (Romans 8:35,37-39), "What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things, we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us."

Nothing, not even money, can stop God from loving us through Jesus.

At first glance it might appear Matthew's Jesus alone gives a practical demonstration of that divine love and care in our "miraculous feeding" Scripture passage (Matthew 14:13-21).

But listen carefully to the passage: Jesus tells His followers, "Give them some food yourselves!"

They, not He, do the actual feeding. Jesus does only three things: He first overcomes his disciples' logical objections to His plan. Next, He blesses the paltry amount of food they produce. Finally, "He [gives] the loaves and fish to the disciples, who in turn give them to the crowds."

Our role
Jesus takes responsibility for the instigation and the blessing. His followers are responsible for the actual feeding of the crowd. They are the ones who freely distribute God's love.

The most significant aspect of this passage comes from recognizing that, like all Gospel bread references, it has something to do with the Eucharist. (If there's any doubt, John has Jesus institute the Eucharist not during the Last Supper, but during his chapter 6 miraculous feeding.)

Though we, like Jesus' disciples, might protest our inability to take care of others' needs, Matthew tells us it's during the celebration of the Lord's Supper that we, with Jesus' blessing, can best offer that care - and there that people can expect to receive it.

Early Christian Eucharists were celebrated in the context of an entire community meal, making it far easier to care for peoples' needs. But through the centuries we've structured our Eucharists in such a way that they've become just a "one-man show."

If the early Church had Mass stipends, the whole community would have had to share in the wealth.
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