"You are cordially invited"…"The honor of your presence is kindly requested;" these are familiar words of invitation that we have all heard at one time or another. They usually carry with them the promise of some enjoyable time to be spent in the company of family or friends. Invitations speak of warmth and welcome and the forming of bonds between those who extend them and those who respond to them.

In today’s 1^st reading we hear a most appealing invitation from God to all who are hungry or thirsty; and without any cost, to come and feast on the rich food of God’s word. He calls and invites us to come and eat; to come and listen; to come that we might have life and the blessing of being God’s partner in a covenant of love. We are told that all that is necessary to respond to His invitation is a willingness to admit our hungers and make known our needs. What is needed to welcome God’s word is a willingness to let it speak to our innermost self and to let it accomplish God’s intent in our lives.

When Jesus took on our human flesh, he became the incarnation of the word and the will of God, but, he also, personified and made accessible God’s many invitations to us. In the Gospel 4 weeks ago, we heard Jesus say to us: Come to me all you who are weary and burdened by the strain of living. Come to me, you who have lost your jobs or benefits. Come to me all you who suffer daily anxiety over wars, terrorism, and violence. Come to me you poor, those who are ill, those suffering injustices. Come to me you elderly who are made to feel like a burden to your children. Come to me, you who are alcoholics, gamblers, smokers and drug abusers, and leave your addictions in my caring hands. Come to me, you who are unwanted, you aborted, you abused, you abandoned children. Come to me when relationships become a struggle, when spouses are unfaithful, when children rebel, or when parents nag. Come, and I will refresh you. Come and listen to my words and learn, come and rest your weariness in me.

Today’s gospel extends a most important invitation to us. We hear first, that Jesus fills the multitude with the good news of God’s presence and His love for them. Then he provides a meal for them, feeding 5,000 men, not counting women and children. We are told that all had their fill, and at the end of the meal there were 12 baskets of leftovers. What Jesus has demonstrated, is that, in whatever God does for us, He is lavish and extravagant.

We are told that before Jesus feeds the people, he invites his disciples to do so. It is when they are unable to do so, that Jesus steps in. In that regard, Jesus is saying something important to them and to us; which is, that just as God has been extravagant in his love for us, we, in turn, should be extravagant in our love for each other.

The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle that all 4 gospels share in common. It is recognized as a foreshadowing of the Jesus’ Eucharistic meal with his disciples at the Last Supper. Jesus’ invitation and his actions of blessing, breaking, and giving are a prelude to another invitation: the offer of himself, broken in death on the cross and forever remembered and celebrated in the blessing, breaking, giving and sharing of the bread of his body – the Holy Eucharist.

Each time we gather for the Eucharist, the invitation of Jesus is renewed. Jesus told his disciples: "Do this in memory of me." The "this" is a call and invitation to us to give our all to and for each other. God’s extravagant love for us is a summons to be extravagant in our love for each other.

There is a story about a man who had been a waiter most of his life, who was on his deathbed, drawing his last breath. He said to his wife, "I’ll be on the other side waiting for you. And if you ever want to talk to me badly enough, I’ll come back. I promise."

Some weeks after the waiter had died; his wife decided she must speak with him again. Consequently, she sought the assistance of the town’s leading spiritualist. "Just knock on the table," advised the spiritualist, "and he’ll hear you." So the wife knocked once, then again, more loudly, but absolutely nothing happened. Then she really hammered on the table, hollering, "Marvin, you come here quickly, or else."

There was a flash of lightening and a roll of thunder and Marvin, her husband, stood before her big as life.

"Marvin," she said, "You heard me knocking! Why didn’t you come?" The veteran ex-waiter explained simply, "It wasn’t my table."