As we participate at the Eucharistic banquet, we are sent forth to share our five barley loaves and two fish with the hungry people in our midst.

 

SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY in OT  B  2021

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 person in the car driving ahead of you and so on and son on.

 

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.

 

Do we think of ourselves as people having a responsibility to feed the hungry in our midst?  To be clear from the Gospel, we are missioned to feed the hungry – the physical, emotional and spiritual hunger of people whom the Lord places in our lives.

 

 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.

 

As the Body of Christ, we are commissioned to wash the feet of God’s poor and feed the hungers of people we share life with.

 

 

But to be clear, we are called also 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 – the young boy who was willing to share his five barley loaves and two fish.  May this young boy who was willing to share be our examination of conscience for us.  What reasons do we give for not sharing some of our perfectly disposable gifts?

 

Thus young boy also provides an inspiration:  Whenever we are discouraged by the demon of “What good can my little bit do (whether of money, time, or effort), we should remember that God can multiply our little bit.”

 

As we consider and take responsibility for our mission collectively as a parish community, we are sent forth as the Church of St. Joseph’s to be a Church of Mercy.  As we are fed and nourished in the mystery of the Eucharist, 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 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.

 

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.  As we are fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord, we are sent forth to share our five barley loaves and two fish with the hungry people in our midst.

 

Have a Blessed Day.

 

Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.

 

Sixteenth Sunday in OT  B 2021

 

Of the ten commandments, in some ways the third commandment is the least thought of the commandments.

 

Who can tell me the third commandment?

 

Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.

 

What does this mean? 

 

Doing what you are doing.  Coming to Mass.  Thanks be to God.

 

The Sunday Eucharist is to be a part of the rhythm of our life.  What is less clear about this Commandment is that we keep the Lord’s Day holy by resting, by renewing ourselves, by remembering what is important in life.

 

We need to reclaim a sabbatical consciousness.  By that, we need to be able to rest – not just in the sense of taking a nap or even taking a vacation, but resting in the presence of our loving God who wishes to renew us in spirit day by day.

 

 

In the Gospel, Jesus is calling the apostles to rest.  Jesus said:  “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” 

 

The message here about our need for rest and renewal is genuine, not selfish.

 

 

What is your “Out of the-Way Place” that enables you to rest a while?  It may be a place on the water or in the mountains.  It may simply be a favorite chair -- perhaps not located in front of the TV, but in a quiet prayer corner of your home.  It may be a relaxing walk or a place to experience the sunrise. 

 

I would invite you to think of this dimension of your spirituality.   God will hold us accountable for the good things we fail to enjoy.  We are blessed in so many ways.  Pope Francis in his writings wants us to rejoice and be glad.  He has written the JOY OF THE GOSPEL and the JOY OF LOVE.

 

 

 

 

 

In the rhythm of the spiritual life, there needs to be both a time apart and a time with others.   In the time apart, we need to be comfortable with solitude – time to be, time to be still in the presence of God.  It has been said wisely:  Beware of the person who cannot be alone. This person can use community as a way of running away from themselves.

 

We need to find time in our day for prayer.  But “Father, my day is too crazy.  I’m too busy.’  If we are too busy to pray, yes, we are too busy.  I invite you to find sometime in your day to waste time with God.  That is what prayer is – wasting time with God.

 

Back to the Gospel, “when Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.”  In the rhythm of our spiritual life, there needs to be time for personal prayer; there also needs to be time in which we do what Jesus did.

 

Our spiritual life is not merely about our personal piety; our spiritual life is to be lived out in the service of people in need.  This is how Jesus lived.  This is how the disciples of Jesus are to live. 

 

There are so many people searching today, people hungering for instruction, good people who are looking for direction: elderly people who feel the diminishing surge of life in their bodies; people who are angry and confused because they have lost confidence in leaders, whether political or religious.  They are people looking for answers and for meaning.  They are like sheep without a shepherd.  To whom should they turn?

 

As a people of God, as the disciples of Jesus, as the community of the baptized, our call is to shepherd one another.  It doesn’t mean they we have all the answers, but it does mean that we are to offer our loving support and service to one another.  It does mean that in Christ Jesus we are brothers and sisters to each other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the rhythm of our spiritual life, prayer leads to our service of one another, and our service of one another leads us back to prayer.  It is the Lord who is the Good Shepherd of the lives of us all.  The Lord is be a part of the rhythm of our lives.   Our responsorial psalm is psalm 23.  “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.”  May we always know that we are never abandoned by a God whose love is made known to us in Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

 

Jesus is the Good Shepherd who is always concerned about people.  Notice in the first part of today’s Gospel account, Jesus is concerned about the well-being of his disciples even more than the success of their mission.  Jesus invites them to come away and rest for a while.  Then when Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them for they were like sheep without a shepherd.  Always, Jesus places people first.  He wishes to the Good Shepherd of his disciples as well as the vast crowd of people.

 

 

May you embrace the grace of today’s liturgy and allow Jesus to be the Good Shepherd of your life.  Allow yourself to be loved by the Lord.  May our summer mantra be a renewal of the third commandment:  Yes, the Sunday Eucharist and Yes to allowing our loving to renew in Spirit.

 

May God give you rest in experiencing the love of the God who is within us.

 

When I am weak, then i am strong.

 

FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN OT B 2021

 

On this Fourth of July weekend, may we enjoy perhaps a family cookout, watch some fireworks, participated in our town parade, perhaps a round of golf, reflected in gratitude on the blessings we enjoy as a nation.

I commend you for making this celebration of the Eucharist a spiritual moment in your holiday weekend.

 

The Scripture readings today invite us to experience God moments where we least expect.

 

  In the Gospel today, when Jesus returned to his hometown 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 briefcase.”  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.

 Who for you is a most unlikely person to reveal God’s presence to you?

May you find the presence of God in those you know and love so deeply?  No one is too local or too ordinary to be a bearer of God’s love for you.

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 reveals his humility in beautiful ways.  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.  For the Apostle Paul, his true God-centeredness came from his weakness, rather than his strength.  For in his weakness, he grew to trust in God’s grace for his life.

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 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.

The virtue of humility does not come easily for anyone of us and certainly not us as a nation.  We would like to see ourselves at the top of the ladder than the bottom of the ladder.  The way we are wired is that we want to be among the best and the brightest.  Yet, Jesus has given us the example of the cross; he washed the feet of his disciples; and he came not to be served but to serve.

 

These Scriptures appropriately come to us during the ordinary time of the Church year.  The take home message for us during the ordinary time of the Church year is to find God in all of life, and to discover God’s presence in the ordinary and the unexpected moments of the day.

 

May God give you peace.