Loaves and Fishes
Jesus faces a dilemma in Today's Gospel. He's looking at 5,000 hungry people. All He has to feed them with is five loaves and two fish. These people are looking to Him for nourishment, but He doesn't have enough to feed them all. Lucky for Him, He's the Son of God. He knows exactly what to do. Drawing inspiration from the 2nd Book of Kings, and the story of Elisha, He feeds all five thousand from the little bit that He has.
Not only does He feed them all, but when they're done eating, there's actually more food left than they started with. Take that, Elisha! The people are so impressed they declare Him "the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world." In fact, Jesus had to withdraw because He was afraid they would carry Him off and make Him king.
As I stand here and look at you, I can relate with this story. You're sitting there waiting for some words of wisdom......some inspiration to help you make it through the next week. You expect some Fulton Sheen-like intelligence to flow from this ambo like clean water from a mountain spring. You're expecting, or at least hoping for, a banquet and all I have is some bread and a couple of fish. When I prepare a homily, I start with a blank computer screen. Some times the words come very easily. Other times, not so much. Like this week. Feeding the 5,000 is the only one of Jesus' miracles, aside from the resurrection, that's repeated in all four Gospels. So, it comes up in the cycle of readings a lot. We all know the story by heart., What the heck can I say about it that hasn't been said hundreds of times before? I need a minor miracle.
But Jesus comes through for me, just as He did for the people in the story. You notice that the Gospels never say what kind of fish it was. It could have been very good, or it could have been very ordinary. You'd have to think that if the food came from Jesus, it was probably very tasty. But we don't know for sure. Likewise, I may not deliver a seafood banquet today, but I'm hoping for at least a Fillet o' Fish.
Anyway, Jesus always comes through for me, just like He did for all those hungry people on the hill, if I let Him. The result may be very good, in which case it's through the workings of the Holy Spirit, or it's very bad, which means I got in the way somehow. But either way, it's food for thought that comes from my fairly empty basket.
So, as I was staring at that blank screen, for some reason I thought of my Aunt Rowena, God rest her soul. She and Uncle Roy lived in Hannibal, MO. I was actually born in Hannibal, even though I've lived my whole life, so far, in St. Louis. But I spent many summer weeks in Hannibal, staying with my aunt and uncle, feeling very much like Tom Sawyer. There were just as many things for a kid to get into in that town in the 20th century as there were in the 19th, and I did my best to get into as many of them as possible. Times were much simpler then and I could do just about anything I wanted. They only lived a block from downtown, so there was plenty for me to do.
My uncle was a building contractor, in the very broadest sense of the term. He did build things, usually small things like houses. His real specialty seemed to be tearing stuff down. That was my favorite part. In the days before OSHA, and child labor laws, I couldn't wait for Uncle Roy to hand me a hammer and tell me to start hitting stuff. Tom and Huck had nothing on me.
Uncle Roy's office was in his basement and he owned one truck. His business probably wasn't something that you'd want to copy, but he liked what he did. He was also the smartest man I ever knew.
He was one of those people who had great ideas the day after someone else had gotten the patent. I guess you'd say he was always a day late and a dollar short. He did have one invention that was very successful. Unfortunately someone stole his idea and they made the big money, not him. Mostly my uncle was a dreamer. So he and my aunt lived their lives in a quiet river town just doing what they did.
Oh, Uncle Roy had one other business. He was a slum lord. Unfortunately, he wasn't a very good slum lord. He never had the heart to throw anyone out on the street because they didn't pay their rent. And most of his tenants didn't pay their rent. In fact, he didn't just let them live in his tenements rent-free, he often brought them home for dinner. Sometimes he brought some of his construction laborers home for dinner. Sometimes he brought total strangers that he met in the bar home to dinner. You never knew if there were going to be three people at the kitchen table or thirteen.
That's why today's Gospel made me think of Aunt Rowena. No matter how many people put their feet under the table, there was always enough food. I'm not sure how she did it. But she did. My aunt and uncle took Jesus' words to feed the hungry and lived them in their lives. The gave food and shelter to no telling how many people who needed them, even though they didn't have all that much themselves.
In the '50s and '60s, Hannibal was like the South. Maybe it still is. I haven't been there in years. Dinner was at noon. Supper was at 6:00. I never did figure out when they ate lunch. But supper, the evening meal, was usually left-overs from dinner; twelve baskets of fragments.
Jesus and Elisha didn't multiply the food to feed themselves. They did it to feed the hungry. And when they were done, they had some left over. In Jesus case, He had more food left over than He started with, proving that God can never be outdone in His generosity.
When we give to the poor, whether it's food, or clothing, or money, it always comes back to us, often in a greater amount than we gave. Think about your own life. How many times has it happened to you? You give something to someone and the next thing you know, something good has come your way. That's your loaves and fishes. That's your twelve baskets left over. That's my aunt's bottomless soup kettle.
And it isn't just stuff that God multiplies. It's also our actions. Cut your neighbor's grass once when he's sick and when you're sick he cuts yours twice. Visit a friend in the hospital and when you're in the hospital, ten people will come to see you. In my case, the Holy Spirit multiplies my words, sometimes making the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
Keep this in mind when there's yet another second collection...... and we're coming into the season of second collections. There are people who think the government is the solution to every problem. Let them take care of it. But the principal of the loaves and fishes never seems to apply to the government. In fact, they always seem to need ten times as many loaves and fishes to feed 10% of the people. Of course they do it with your money.
The government minimizes our money. The Church magnifies it. The difference is one word......faith. We do our best for our brothers and sisters when we have faith and follow Jesus' example in today's Gospel.
No, the responsibility for caring for our less-fortunate brothers and sisters falls directly on you and me. We're called to feed the hungry. We're called to clothe the poor. We're called to comfort the grieving. And, as today's readings remind us, we can never give too much, because God's there for us, making sure that we're taken care of too.
You know, the Apostles were hungry that day too. I'm sure they had their eye on that fish and bread. But they stood by silently as Jesus gave it all away. It's no coincidence that when Jesus sent them to retrieve the leftovers, there were twelve baskets of food, one basket for each of them..... enough to feed them for several meals........ much more than their share of the two fish and five loaves would have been.
My aunt and uncle never hesitated to help anyone in need, even though they weren't rich people. But they did the best they could with what they had, and I'm sure they're in heaven today, enjoying the reward for their efforts. They weren't church-going people, but they were protestants. In their wildest dreams they could never have imagined themselves being used to inspire a church full of Catholics. But that's the way God works. I pray for them every day, but I haven't really thought about them in a long time. But the Holy Spirit made me think of them when I was trying to come up with something to talk about today, and made me see them in an entirely new way.
That's my loaves and fishes for today. I hope you share them with others and have twelve baskets left over.
Not only does He feed them all, but when they're done eating, there's actually more food left than they started with. Take that, Elisha! The people are so impressed they declare Him "the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world." In fact, Jesus had to withdraw because He was afraid they would carry Him off and make Him king.
As I stand here and look at you, I can relate with this story. You're sitting there waiting for some words of wisdom......some inspiration to help you make it through the next week. You expect some Fulton Sheen-like intelligence to flow from this ambo like clean water from a mountain spring. You're expecting, or at least hoping for, a banquet and all I have is some bread and a couple of fish. When I prepare a homily, I start with a blank computer screen. Some times the words come very easily. Other times, not so much. Like this week. Feeding the 5,000 is the only one of Jesus' miracles, aside from the resurrection, that's repeated in all four Gospels. So, it comes up in the cycle of readings a lot. We all know the story by heart., What the heck can I say about it that hasn't been said hundreds of times before? I need a minor miracle.
But Jesus comes through for me, just as He did for the people in the story. You notice that the Gospels never say what kind of fish it was. It could have been very good, or it could have been very ordinary. You'd have to think that if the food came from Jesus, it was probably very tasty. But we don't know for sure. Likewise, I may not deliver a seafood banquet today, but I'm hoping for at least a Fillet o' Fish.
Anyway, Jesus always comes through for me, just like He did for all those hungry people on the hill, if I let Him. The result may be very good, in which case it's through the workings of the Holy Spirit, or it's very bad, which means I got in the way somehow. But either way, it's food for thought that comes from my fairly empty basket.
So, as I was staring at that blank screen, for some reason I thought of my Aunt Rowena, God rest her soul. She and Uncle Roy lived in Hannibal, MO. I was actually born in Hannibal, even though I've lived my whole life, so far, in St. Louis. But I spent many summer weeks in Hannibal, staying with my aunt and uncle, feeling very much like Tom Sawyer. There were just as many things for a kid to get into in that town in the 20th century as there were in the 19th, and I did my best to get into as many of them as possible. Times were much simpler then and I could do just about anything I wanted. They only lived a block from downtown, so there was plenty for me to do.
My uncle was a building contractor, in the very broadest sense of the term. He did build things, usually small things like houses. His real specialty seemed to be tearing stuff down. That was my favorite part. In the days before OSHA, and child labor laws, I couldn't wait for Uncle Roy to hand me a hammer and tell me to start hitting stuff. Tom and Huck had nothing on me.
Uncle Roy's office was in his basement and he owned one truck. His business probably wasn't something that you'd want to copy, but he liked what he did. He was also the smartest man I ever knew.
He was one of those people who had great ideas the day after someone else had gotten the patent. I guess you'd say he was always a day late and a dollar short. He did have one invention that was very successful. Unfortunately someone stole his idea and they made the big money, not him. Mostly my uncle was a dreamer. So he and my aunt lived their lives in a quiet river town just doing what they did.
Oh, Uncle Roy had one other business. He was a slum lord. Unfortunately, he wasn't a very good slum lord. He never had the heart to throw anyone out on the street because they didn't pay their rent. And most of his tenants didn't pay their rent. In fact, he didn't just let them live in his tenements rent-free, he often brought them home for dinner. Sometimes he brought some of his construction laborers home for dinner. Sometimes he brought total strangers that he met in the bar home to dinner. You never knew if there were going to be three people at the kitchen table or thirteen.
That's why today's Gospel made me think of Aunt Rowena. No matter how many people put their feet under the table, there was always enough food. I'm not sure how she did it. But she did. My aunt and uncle took Jesus' words to feed the hungry and lived them in their lives. The gave food and shelter to no telling how many people who needed them, even though they didn't have all that much themselves.
In the '50s and '60s, Hannibal was like the South. Maybe it still is. I haven't been there in years. Dinner was at noon. Supper was at 6:00. I never did figure out when they ate lunch. But supper, the evening meal, was usually left-overs from dinner; twelve baskets of fragments.
Jesus and Elisha didn't multiply the food to feed themselves. They did it to feed the hungry. And when they were done, they had some left over. In Jesus case, He had more food left over than He started with, proving that God can never be outdone in His generosity.
When we give to the poor, whether it's food, or clothing, or money, it always comes back to us, often in a greater amount than we gave. Think about your own life. How many times has it happened to you? You give something to someone and the next thing you know, something good has come your way. That's your loaves and fishes. That's your twelve baskets left over. That's my aunt's bottomless soup kettle.
And it isn't just stuff that God multiplies. It's also our actions. Cut your neighbor's grass once when he's sick and when you're sick he cuts yours twice. Visit a friend in the hospital and when you're in the hospital, ten people will come to see you. In my case, the Holy Spirit multiplies my words, sometimes making the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
Keep this in mind when there's yet another second collection...... and we're coming into the season of second collections. There are people who think the government is the solution to every problem. Let them take care of it. But the principal of the loaves and fishes never seems to apply to the government. In fact, they always seem to need ten times as many loaves and fishes to feed 10% of the people. Of course they do it with your money.
The government minimizes our money. The Church magnifies it. The difference is one word......faith. We do our best for our brothers and sisters when we have faith and follow Jesus' example in today's Gospel.
No, the responsibility for caring for our less-fortunate brothers and sisters falls directly on you and me. We're called to feed the hungry. We're called to clothe the poor. We're called to comfort the grieving. And, as today's readings remind us, we can never give too much, because God's there for us, making sure that we're taken care of too.
You know, the Apostles were hungry that day too. I'm sure they had their eye on that fish and bread. But they stood by silently as Jesus gave it all away. It's no coincidence that when Jesus sent them to retrieve the leftovers, there were twelve baskets of food, one basket for each of them..... enough to feed them for several meals........ much more than their share of the two fish and five loaves would have been.
My aunt and uncle never hesitated to help anyone in need, even though they weren't rich people. But they did the best they could with what they had, and I'm sure they're in heaven today, enjoying the reward for their efforts. They weren't church-going people, but they were protestants. In their wildest dreams they could never have imagined themselves being used to inspire a church full of Catholics. But that's the way God works. I pray for them every day, but I haven't really thought about them in a long time. But the Holy Spirit made me think of them when I was trying to come up with something to talk about today, and made me see them in an entirely new way.
That's my loaves and fishes for today. I hope you share them with others and have twelve baskets left over.
posted by Mike at 11:30 AM
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