Scripture Reflection - August 2, 2026

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 55:1-3 Romans 8:35, 37-39 Matthew 14:13-21

“Not counting women and children.”

She lay on the cool church floor, looking up dreamily at the limp-limbed, tropical, pine tree. I held my breath each time I took a peek because the tree was bending precariously under the weight of an incomplete set of donated, outdoor, Christmas tree lights. Nanette was nine years old, and lived across the gully from our church with her factory-worker mom, Pam. They were members of a rather large colony of inter-generational squatters in West Kingston, Jamaica. The child helped me all day in getting our small parish church ready for the Christmas Eve Mass. Mostly, she cut out decorations from old newspapers and then tied them with odds and ends of string on only those tree branches she could reach. I cringed with each new addition to the tree, praying the pine wouldn’t fall on both of us.

Christmas tree decorating was a first for this child, and to mark the moment, I spontaneously suggested that we compensate our good work with some store-cooked chicken and fries. In the blink of an eye, she leapt across the gully, rinsed off at the standpipe, stuck a clip in her hair, and donned a dress I recognized from one of our recent “gently used” clothes fairs. She was hungry in every way a human could be—for nutrition, security, clean water, a decent education, magical memories, and a promising future beyond the devouring grip of poverty. But, after she inhaled half a chicken breast, half a pile of fries, and half a roll, she tied up the remains in a take-away box and bent her head in a prayer of thanksgiving. “Please, finish it all, Nanette,” I pleaded. She looked up into my face and softly said, “The rest is for Pam.” What more could I ever learn about selflessness and generosity?

Today’s Gospel both challenges and annoys me. Jesus recognizes the hunger of the people who have been listening to him all day—but his disciples do not. Seeing in front of him an unfolding food crisis of a significant scale, he cajoles the disciples into a multiplication miracle. “Alas,” we are told, “those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children.”

Not counting women and children? Don’t you wonder why they were not counted?

The United Nations’ most recent report on the Status of Women conveys some shocking statistics. Today, sixty-four million female adult and girl children continue to suffer gender-based food insecurity on a daily basis. Often responsible for gathering a day’s cooking fuel as well as the actual food for their families to eat, women and girls are routinely deprived of the basic nutrition their male counterparts enjoy at their expense. Meanwhile, we are told, globally, over one billion meals a day are thrown to waste.

Of course, all of this is one of the dangerous outcomes of unfettered and persistent patriarchy that is unveiled, once again, in the Gospel today. The miracle in Matthew’s rendition of it seems to convey that only the men ate and were satisfied. If the metrics were so important to the hearers of the story, why weren’t women and children counted?

In memory of Nanette, I imagine that the women and children multiplied the twelve baskets of leftovers by simply breaking them apart, sharing them, and restraining their appetites until all were fed. What a wonderful way to witness the true miracle at the heart of today’s Gospel. How can we replicate it?

Today’s Gospel asks us:

How aware are we of the way women and girls are treated in the world today? Sixty-four million are deprived of basic nutrition, while one billion meals are thrown away. I didn’t know that. Did you?

How are we / how can we dismantle patriarchy, and its structures of sexism, racism, and classism so that everyone has what they need to flourish?

How are you and I challenged to do with less so that many can have more?

Sr. Arlene Flaherty, OP