My homily for this weekend.--------------------------------------------
A little over a week ago, as was announced in the bulletin and is reflected upon in this week’s Pittsburgh Catholic, I and nine of my seminary brothers had the opportunity to visit the Maternidad de Maria Hospital in Chimbote, Peru, with Bishop Zubik. Our visit there consisted of coming to know the Maternidad and the people that they serve – both at the hospital itself, as well as visiting some of the people in their homes. It was a phenomenal experience, to say the least. The people of Chimbote, while some of the economically poorest in our hemisphere, displayed some of the greatest joy I had ever seen. It sounds perplexing, and somewhat of a paradox, I know. But their joy didn’t come from anything physical; rather, it was a joy based in the Gospel. These people live out daily their faith and conviction that the Lord will take care of all their needs.
The abundance – and even over-abundance – of graces that the Lord continually provides for His people is what is presented to us in today’s readings. The man who presented Elisha with the twenty barley loaves could not fathom how there would be enough bread to feed one hundred people. The Apostles questioned Jesus on how five barley loaves and two fish could feed over five thousand people! What Elisha and Jesus were able to recognize, however, is that the Lord cares for those who believe in Him and call upon Him in their time of need.
We, in our current society and culture, have a hard time understanding how people who don’t have the latest car, the fastest computer, the newest video game, or the biggest TV could ever be happy – or at least content. What we fail to recognize is that there is something more important than anything our culture or society can ever give us, and that is the gift of faith. The people of Chimbote recognize this, because their faith is lived out in some fashion everyday.
I’m not saying that we who are gathered here today do not have faith, nor am I saying that we don’t recognize the blessings that are ours. We have just become so accustomed to our lifestyles that we fail to see the abundance of gifts and graces that the Father has bestowed upon us. I get that way myself: I’m going out, I make sure I have my cell phone . . . I’m too warm, I put on the A/C . . . I become bored, so I turn on the TV or throw in a movie to watch. Our society has drifted from the Norman Rockwell-esque picture of the perfect summer – that of sipping your iced-cold lemonade while laying in your hammock in a vast field of flowers, enjoying the simple gifts of life – to our worrying about what will happen if the power fails, and I can’t have my A/C on while I’m watching the game. We neglect to notice those simple graces that God bestows upon us daily, such as: life, family, friends, faith – and we, in turn, forget to thank God for these “simple pleasures”.
Beginning this week, and for the next four weeks, we will hear and reflect upon the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John: the Bread of Life Discourse, in which Jesus gives to us His definitive teaching on the Eucharist and the centrality of receiving His Body and Blood in our lives. You see, to begin to recognize the abundance of the graces and gifts in our lives, we must first turn to and tune in to Him from where the graces and gifts originate. We must make the Eucharist THE priority in our lives – placing it above all others. The Second Vatican Council reminds us that the Eucharist is the “source and summit” of the Christian life. If we are truly to live as disciples of Christ, how dare we not recognize Him from which “all good things come”?
To come before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, to offer Eucharist, which is Greek for “thanksgiving”, we come to recognize the awesome workings of God in our lives. When we come with simple and humble faith before the God of the Universe disguised in elements of bread and wine, those things which our culture and society deem as important take a backseat to those things which really are: our life, our health, our family and friends, and, ultimately, our faith.
The people of Chimbote, though lacking in material wealth, are able to recognize the abundance of gifts and graces that are theirs through their gift of faith. We can be like them. We only need to come to the Lord – especially in our prayer before the Blessed Sacrament – and recognize that, with simple faith, “the hand of the Lord feeds us; He answers all our needs”.
