Our Gospel spirituality calls us to be mission-minded.

 

 

Eighteenth Sunday in OT  B  2021

Propagation of the Faith homily

In my 53 years as a priest,  I have never experienced a liturgy in which at 6:00 am on each and every school day 1,000 high school girls in full Catholic school uniform sing the opening hymn with enthusiastic voices accompanied only by one high school girl in the choir loft striking a well-worn drum.  I tell you looking out from the altar at these Tanzanian girls was a mystical moment of prayerfulness and joy.

We were indeed on holy ground.  Father Damian Milliken, a Benedictine priest from Elmira, New York, was presiding at the Mass.  Father Damian is a priest in his 80’s and has ministered in the last 50 years of his priesthood serving the poorest of the poor in Tanzania, East Africa.  The genuine love and respect that Father Damian enjoys with these young Tanzanians and their families and all who live in the area around Mazinde Ju is so Christ-like and uplifting. 

Equally impressive is a religious community of consecrated women who are such an important part of the teaching faculty.  These are the religious sisters of Usambara.  Dressed in their full habit, these sisters number 500 sisters in Tanzania.  These sisters know in their DNA the joy of the Lord.

To describe St Mary’s School in Mazinde Ju in Tanzania is a bit of a challenge.  It is a residential school where these students live during the academic year and are able to get three healthy meals each day.  The dormitories these students live in are filled with bunk beds.  Each girl has a tiny cubicle which houses all her worldly possessions including all her clothing.  I have a beautiful grandniece for whom to put all her clothes in this tiny cubicle would simply be impossible.

 

 These high school students, these beloved daughters of God have no sense of entitlement by which they expect people to take care of them.  They are so grateful for every opportunity in life that is given to them.  They are not saddened by the effects of the poverty of the country; they are joy-filled in the opportunity that is given to them as students in this quality academic setting that is filled with so much love and so much spirituality.

Why do I tell you all this?  I can you first hand from having the privilege of sending time with these students in Mazinde Ju in Tanzania to be inspired by their faith, their desire to learn, the way they care for one another, and the opportunity St Mary’s School gives these students to continue their education.  Under the inspired leadership of this Benedictine priest Fr Damien Milliken and the religious sisters of the Usambara, these students are formed and fashioned after the mind and heart of Jesus.

The second collection today is the annual Propagation of the Faith collection.  Every cent of this collection goes to support the educational opportunity for these high school girls.  This school provides so much more than our excellent high schools.  These girls and their families live in such poverty that is hard for us to imagine as it is so far removed from our way of life.  This school is a residential school that provides such a healthy way of life for these students.  It is the promised land for these students.

Some of us make an annual $1,000 contribution to provide a scholarship for one on these deserving students.    Personally, I gladly make this $1,000 contribution each year.  I had the profound privilege of spending some time with this young Tanzanian girl I have sponsoring for the last three years.  I tell you I had to tell myself: “Be still my heart” when I realized the opportunity I was giving this daughter of God in my prayer and in my tithing commitment.  In all truth, l cannot think of a better use of this money. 

 Lest you think I have forgotten the Scripture readings, in the first Scripture reading from the Book of Exodus, the Israelites weren’t having a good time.  Their complaints were mounting.  Nothing was going right for them.  Moses their leader was on the hot seat. 

 

God patiently works with them and responds to their complaints with bread from heaven.  As they gather the manna each day of their journey, they may learn to trust that God will always care for them.

 

But the truth of their journey lies in the reality that until the people learned to trust in God, they would never make much progress towards the Promised Land.

 

This is the truth of our spiritual journey as well:  Until we trust in God’s faithfulness to us, we wander a bit aimlessly.

I would our financial support for these Tanzanian high school girls is like manna from heaven given to them so they have an educational and life opportunity that otherwise they would never experience.

 

In today’s Gospel, remembering when Jesus fed five thousand people with only two fish and five barley loaves, the crowd chased Jesus down to ask for more, as if Jesus had a magic picnic hamper always full of food.  Jesus tells to look for a different kind of food.  Jesus said to them:  I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE.

 

Jesus now says that the deepest hungers and thirsts of the human heart are satisfied through the person of Jesus.  He is food for our souls.  Jesus is inviting us to a personal relationship with him.

 

Jesus is trying to refocus the inquiring minds of his disciples.  They are seeking him because they have filled their bellies on the loaves of bread.  But they have not understood the loaves as signs of God’s care for people.  They are well acquainted with their physical hunger and deeply attached to filling it.  But they are less acquainted with their spiritual hunger and unsure how to fill it.  Jesus tells them that he himself is the one who feeds them with eternal food.

Going back to how I began this homily, these students begin each at 6:00 am celebrating the Eucharist giving thanks to God for the blessings they now enjoy.

 

In our generous spiritual and financial support of these beautiful, beautiful Tanzanian high school girls, we are living the words of Jesus in the Last Judgment scene depicted in the Gospel of Matthew:  Jesus says: What you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do to me.”

 

May God give you peace and a generous spirit.