The gospel reminds us that God can work wonders with the little we have if we give it all.

Today we remember the most famous picnic in religious history. Today’s Gospel recounts the account of Jesus feeding the five thousand with the multiplication of the loaves and the fish.

I invite you to envision this well known miracle story of Jesus feeding the five thousand people with five barley loaves and two fish in a new way.

Imagine that the hungry crowd of 5,000 people represents all the people we will encounter through this coming week, beginning at the dismissal rite of this Mass.  These are the people God puts in our path as we journey this week … obviously your family members, the people who have gathered for this Eucharistic celebration in our parish community, the people you work with and vacation with, the incidental people you meet during the course of the week, the likeable as well as the unlikeable people of your life.

These are all God’s people.  In some real ways, they are hungry for that which gives them life.  They may or may not be physically hungry, but they are spiritually and emotionally hungry for the fullness of life.   Lord calls us to move out of our comfort zone and do something about it.

Imagine further that we are the five barley loaves and fish that Christ distributes in the world.  Yes, if we envision the Gospel account in this way, we are all challenged to give of ourselves in the service of others.  This is our spirituality.  This is the meaning of stewardship.  Pope Francis in his homily on this miracle account says its spiritual message is more about sharing than multiplying.

Barley loaves are the food of the poor.  Let our loaves represent that which is most broken, most vulnerable within us.  Let the barley loaves stand for the risk and vulnerability involved in reaching out to others, in moving out of our comfort zone in the service of others.  Let the loaves we distribute be like the risks of faith that our parents and grandparents, many within this very parish, took as they lived the life to which Christ called them and to which Christ calls us.  Thank you for the sharing that you do in financially contributing with your offertory envelopes.  This generosity is essential to support the ministries of the parish.

But to be clear, we are called to share beyond our finances.  We are to share of ourselves in feeding the spiritually and emotionally hungry that the Lord places in our lives.  In the Gospel account, God met the hunger of the people, beginning with the generosity of one of the least among them.

Imagine also that we are the fish that are distributed.  Fish supplies vital protein, a necessary ingredient in human life.  Human persons get sick if they lack protein. The evangelist John tells us that the crowd ate as much fish as they wanted – enough to fill them up.  What parts of us can we distribute this week that will fill others up?  Especially let us think of those whose plate and cup need filling.  This could be reaching out to a disliked person at work or a separated family member.  Such distribution of ourselves represented by the fish, like the barley loaves,   requires a great risk of faith.  Yet God calls to be such instruments of God’s mercy in the lives of others.

In the words of the Holy Father, the Church of the Holy Spirit is to be a Church of Mercy.  As we are fed and nourished in the mystery of the Eucharist and in our prayer in Eucharistic Adoration, we are to share the giftedness we have been given.  We are to share our five barley loaves and two fish so that the Lord’s reveals His love to the hungry through our generosity.  The Lord is merciful to us so that we can be merciful to others.

This Gospel miracle account is good news because it tells that God is concerned about people who hunger.  It is good news because it reminds us that God can work wonders  with the little we have if we are willing to give it all.  It is good news because it reminds us that with God in our midst, we can always make a banquet out of what seems to be pretty poor fare.

We need to pay attention to the physical needs of people but this means much more than an active tithing committee that doles out tons of money.  In the Gospel account, there is more here than just a great number of hungry people being wondrously fed and satisfied.  Jesus is gathering with the hungry in the context of a shared meal, not only to feed and to be fed but to enter into covenant with all those present.  Here Jesus sets an example for those who follow him in ministry.  Our task is not simply to dole out food but to take, bless, give thanks and share our food together with the hungry and the poor, thereby sealing our relationship with them.  We are to offer nourishment as well as commitment, food as well as fellowship.

The true miracle is not the multiplication of loaves and fish, but the multiplication of God’s grace.  The God who is the source of all life offers us the possibility of participating in the divine life by our sharing with others our five barley loaves and two fish.

When Jesus and the disciples ate together with the crowds who had gathered that day by the Sea of Galilee, they were announcing by their sharing that a new relationship was being established between Jesus, the disciples and all the hungry whom they fed.

Moreover, the meal of barley loaves and fish by the Sea of Galilee anticipated another even more significant meal that Jesus would host with his own.  This meal would remember the gift of himself on the cross and the covenant made with sinful humankind through his blood.  That meal would celebrate the union in love that believers would forever thereafter enjoy with God, with Jesus, with one another, in the Spirit.

The bread we receive from the hand of God is more than mere barley loaves.  It is the Eucharistic bread of full life, life in all its dimensions, life in Christ.

Does emotional baggage weigh you down?

In today’s first Scripture, Amos was a most reluctant prophet.  God called him through the high priest Amaziah.  Amos initially resisted God’s call saying he was a simple shepherd.  He did not have any qualifications.  God had seen something in the prophet that he did not see in himself.

I wonder what God sees in each one of us as we are called to evangelize – to be spirit-filled evangelizers.  As we resist God’s call like Amos, my hunch God sees something in us.  May we heed the words of the psalmist and listen to what God proclaims to us.

In the Gospel, Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits.  He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick – no food, no sack, no money in the belts.”

In this Gospel, Jesus’ mission becomes the mission of the Twelve -- and our mission.  Jesus’ instruction to the Twelve are his instructions to us as well.

A key word in the commission of Jesus to his apostles is baggage.  What is our baggage?  Jesus is calling us to a Gospel simplicity -- possessions are not to weigh us down or to keep us from being dependent on God’s providence.

In the first week of May, 42 of us pilgrims walked 70 miles of the El Camino in Northern Spain to the great Cathedral of St. James in Santiago.  This pilgrimage challenged us to a simplicity of lifestyle.  We had no extra baggage.  The El Camino is a wonderful metaphor for the pilgrimage of life.  Extra baggage can give us the illusion of independence but what it does is it keep us from relying more fully on the grace of God.

At first glance, the Gospel seems to be referring only to physical baggage.  As the airlines charge a bit extra for additional baggage, Jesus is saying that that baggage can give us a false sense of trust and make us less reliant on our real source of energy -- the grace of God.

I would have also consider the emotional baggage that can too easily weigh us down and keep from a simplicity of lifestyle Jesus calls us to.  This isn’t the baggage that you can pay a little extra and have it checked so you don’t have to worry about it when traveling.

What is your baggage?  What emotional baggage do you carry around that is not of the missionary spirit Jesus calls us to?

n  Hurts from a significant relationship.

n  Judgments you make about other people

n  Fears that keep you confined to a safe comfort zone.

In praying over this Gospel, all of us need to do an inventory of emotional baggage that weighs us down.  We need to pray for the grace of healing memories that keep us from being more free?

We need to let go of any baggage that keeps us from recognizing the dignity of the person in front of us. Theodore Roosevelt said:  “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”  Pope Francis comes to mind as he now journeys in South America.  Pope Francis cares about the sick, the young, and the elderly.  He shows himself to be a man of God.

The commission of Jesus to his apostles tells them what not to bring but also what they are to bring in announcing the Good News of the Gospel.  Jesus sent them out two by two.  They were not   to be lone rangers.  They were to companion one another on the journey and be companioned by others.

Jesus has not sent us alone.  Jesus has given the community of the Church of the Holy Spirit.  We are meant to rely on one another so as not to be distracted by our belongings, by our stuff.  Many of us have more stuff than we need.  I count myself in this number.  Our stuff can certainly be a distraction from the ministry of evangelizing.

Jesus wants his disciples to rely on one another rather than vast and mighty possessions.

A story is told among the peoples of South India about a wealthy landowner who had four very quarrelsome sons.  Jealous of one another, they were constantly at odds, much to the chagrin of their father.  When he sensed his death was near, the father called his sons and divided his property among them.  They he called for some sticks to be brought, tied tightly in a bundle, and told each of the sons to try to break the bundle.  Not one could do it.  Then, the father asked for the sticks to be taken out of the bundle.  “Try now,” he said, and with little effort, they could break each single stick.  Thus the father taught the brothers that strength comes from unity:  United they would stand, but divided, each would fall.

Jesus gives us the same message.  Our strength in proclaiming the Gospel comes when we are a community of faith with the same mission.  Yes, each of us has our own uniqueness, our own spirituality, and our own craziness.  But we will discover the life of the Risen Christ when we come to come together as a community of faith to the Eucharistic table to be fed and nourished as the Table of the Lord.

Sometimes we come to know God where we least expect.

Have you enjoyed your celebration of the Fourth of July weekend?    I commend you for making this Celebration of the Eucharist a spiritual moment in your holiday weekend.  In the celebration of Holy Mass, we are giving thanks to the Lord our God for the blessings we enjoy as a family and as a nation.

What are the other dimensions of our holiday weekend?  Perhaps a round of golf, a family cookout, participation in the town parade, watched some fireworks, reflected in gratitude on the blessings we enjoy as a nation, or been conscious of those who are hungry and perhaps have not experienced the joy of a family outing?  Have these parts of your weekend been God moments as well as this participation in the mystery of the Eucharist?

The Scripture readings today invite us to experience God moments where we least expect.  In the Gospel today, when Jesus returned to his home town of Nazareth to preach in the synagogue, the people who knew him best responded with disbelief.   They said:  “Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother James and Joses and Judas and Simon?”

By way of parenthesis, it was customary in the time of the evangelist to refer to close relatives as brothers and sisters.

As far as the hometown folks of Nazareth were concerned, Jesus was too local to be important.  As one sage puts it, “an expert is someone who tells you everything you already know but comes from of town and is carrying a brief case.”  Jesus should be home making tables like his dad, instead of preaching in synagogues and working miracles and casting out demons. 

A question for our reflection is whether our preconceived notions of Jesus hinder us from recognizing his presence in the circumstances of our life.  The people of Jesus’ time might expect a word of God from the high priest in Jerusalem temple, but not from a carpenter, not from Nazareth.  What we believe in the mystery of the Incarnation is that God is not an expert from heaven with a briefcase.  Rather God is to be found in our neighbor, our friend, our hometown wisdom.

To go back to my original question, what have been your God moments during this holiday weekend?  In your family outing, has this been a spiritual experience for you?  I can tell you holding my red-headed grandniece Kiera Grace in my arms was an inspiring God moment for me.  She radiates the presence of God in my heart.

May you find the presence of God in those you know and love so deeply?

St. Paul in the second Scripture provides us with another deep insight in experiencing God where we least expect.

Paul writes:  “A thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated.  ‘Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me: My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’  Paul then said, for the sake of Christ, ‘when I am weak, then I am strong.’”

Certainly anyone who knows much about the life of St. Paul would not view him as a weak man.  This is the man who, through his strong faith, puts his life in jeopardy constantly.  He endured imprisonment and shipwrecks.  Yet, he admits to having weaknesses.

There is something humiliating in admitting one’s weakness.  Pope Francis is a wonderful example to us on the strength of St. Paul.  In his first description of himself as our Pope, Francis humbly says:  “I am a sinner.”  The message of this scripture passage is that recognizing and admitting our shortcomings is essential for us to have the strength Paul demonstrates.

The reason St. Paul finds strength in his limitations is because he is aware that the Lord will provide the power needed in the midst of those deficiencies.  Paul’s life is God-centered.

However, note that Paul’s first prayer was that his thorn in the flesh would be removed so that he might be a better preacher of the Gospel.  So too, it is for us, we pray that we finally overcome the sins we have been confessing all of our lives.  We finally want to get it right and prove that we have the will power to live the kind of life we can be very proud of.

Yet, conversion happened for Paul happened when he switched gears.  Instead of praying that his thorn of the flesh would be removed, he boasted of his weakness.  Paul then said:  “For the sake of Christ, when I am weak, then I am strong.”

How would that work for us?  Can you imagine yourself boasting of your weakness?  And then say:  “When I am weak, I am strong.”

What success have you not achieved that is very important to you?  What would you like to give your children but are unable to?  What illness or handicap or addiction are you dealing with? What loss leaves an emptiness in your life?  What secret is too vulnerable for you to share with others?

These I suggest are your thorns in the flesh?   How can we embrace the virtue of humility and confess our shortcoming and acknowledge our need for God’s grace in our life?  This path, I would suggest, is your journey of conversion.

As a nation as we reflect on the recent decision of our Supreme Court that recognizes the validity of the civil marriage of two people of the same sex.  The Supreme Court has ruled that two persons of the same sex have a constitutional right to marry each other.

It is important to note that the Catholic Church has an abiding concern for the dignity of gay persons.   The Church extends support and love to all families, no matter their circumstances, recognizing that we are all relatives, journeying through life under the careful watch of a loving God.

But It is most important to note that the Supreme Court’s redefinition of civil marriage has no bearing on the Catholic Sacrament of Marriage, in which the marriage of man and woman is a sign of the union of Christ and the Church.  We continue to uphold the traditional concept of marriage that is written in our human hearts and confirmed by the Word of God.

Going back to today’s Scriptures, our God is to be found in our neighbor, our friends, our family, and even in the midst of the struggles and crosses of life.