Homily - July 29, 2012, Week 17 Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Readings for the day: 2 Kgs 4:42-44, Ps 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18, Eph 4:1-6, Jn 6:1-15


The one thing I really enjoy about summer is grilling out at home or having a picnic and inviting family or friends over to enjoy the food and company.   Some of my favorite foods on the grill are corn on the cob roasted in the husk, barbecue chicken, and good juicy hamburgers.   The smell of the flavors wafting through the air waiting to cook is part of the experience that makes it enjoyable.  The one thing I learned from my wife over the years is that if you are planning a picnic you need to make sure you have enough food.  Whenever we have these gatherings we’ll call or contact people over and ask them to RSVP to we have enough for a gathering.   It’s very uncomfortable to invite people over and not have enough for them to eat.    But even with best laid plans to prepare and have enough every once in a while you’ll get some people who will show up that either RSVP’ed they were not coming or just showed up as uninvited guests.   Remember cousin Eddie in Christmas Vacation?  All you can say is “Uh, sure we have plenty. Come on in?”   Usually this is a bit uncomfortable and awkward, but things work out. 

But how about bigger problems that your faced with?   The loss of a job after 30 years of dedication to a company you were planning to retire from.    Or you have unemployment benefits running out and no job prospects to replace the income.    You are faced with a serious illness and require a major surgery that’s going to deplete all your retirement savings?  How are you going to get through these?

Jesus and his disciples were faced with a big problem.    They had just returned from Jesus curing some of the sick and were most likely going up the mountain for a respite and a time of prayer.  Jesus and his disciples probably had some provisions to take care of themselves to provide food for the night.   But the word had gotten out about the miraculous cures and the people did not want to leave Jesus alone.   The people came up to the mountains and droves and it said there were five thousand men.  This meant there were probably 10-15 thousand if you counted the woman and children.  Could you imagine going up a mountain with provisions for 13 and having to feed enough people to fill Victory field? 

Jesus shows compassion for people and recognizes the people are hungry.   He knows many have come up the mountains to be healed as they are so desperate and may not have even thought about getting something to eat.   Jesus knows what he is going to do to solve this problem, but he tests the disciples to see if they realize who he is, the Son of God.  They don’t quite know that yet, so they don’t think about coming to Jesus for the answer.   They only think about their human limitations.  Philip states it is going to take more than a half a years wages to feed them all.  Andrew spots a boy with enough food maybe to feed another 20 people.   They did not know totally who Jesus was yet and did not come to him for help.

Jesus responds by having all the people recline in the grass and he gives thanks to God for the loaves and fish he has and then has the disciples distribute to the crowds.  There is not only enough to feed all the crowds but there are 12 baskets of food left over!   Jesus shows that if we come to him for help he can provide in abundance.   He performs this miracle of providing food for the short term fix of physical hunger so he can show the disciples who he is and also as a prelude to the spiritual food he provides in the Eucharist for providing lasting food of eternal life to satisfy our spiritual hunger.    Over the next five weeks the Gospel will be focusing on John’s bread of life discourse.

Jesus teaches us that when we come to him with our problems you’ll be amazed at how he can help.  How can you come to him?  In personal prayer, through the church, and asking friends and family to pray for you and provide help.  How exactly did the miraculous feeding come about we don’t know.  It could have been Jesus actually multiplying the food to feed everyone.   It could have been the people gathered sharing what they have.   We don’t exactly know how.   I’d like to think it was a little of both.  Because Jesus can perform miracle but we are also the body of Christ and can be the hands and feet of Jesus to help others and help in abundance. 

I’d like to close with a short personal story of someone who came to the Church for help.   I recently went to St. John’s downtown to assist as deacon for Mass with Fr. Anto.  When I left Mass I encountered a man who looked like he was homeless and asked for help, which is a common encounter downtown.  He told me that he just got a job at the zoo in food service, but would not be getting paid for two weeks and needed some money to buy bus tickets for transportation. He had come to the church as he asked some people where he could get help.  They normally have bus tickets but were out that day.  Well instead of giving him money the Spirit moved me and I took him over to the Indygo office and bought him a two-week bus pass. I had not eaten lunch yet and so I bought lunch for him as well.  We were talking while waiting in line to buy food and he said he needed to find black pants to go with his uniform.  I took him over to the Salvation Army store to find a pair of pants.  While going there he told me he had a place to stay since he now had job and his new job would provide him with food daily.    We didn’t find a pair of slacks and he said he was sure he’d find some place to get them.   I dropped him off and gave him some money to buy the slacks and to buy some food for the night. 

My purpose of telling this story is not to pat myself on the back, but to illustrate that if you come to Jesus things will work out as God provides in abundance.   Jesus can perform miracles and sometimes he can does it through his Church.   Who is his Church?  It’s you and I.  We are the hands and feet of Jesus.    How do we become the hands and feet of Jesus?  By participating in the Eucharist weekly or even daily if possible and becoming Jesus by receiving him and living the way he calls us to live.  By doing so we become the hands and feet of Jesus and can help Him provide in abundance when people come to him.  Thank you and God bless you.