Feeding the 5000

Homily
August 3, 2008

18th Sunday Ordinary Time, Cycle A
"Feeding the 5000"

In the gospel that we have just listened to, Jesus had received the news that John the Baptist, his friend and relative had been murdered. So what did Jesus do when he heard the news?

He withdrew in a boat to a deserted place. Why did he attempt to isolate himself? Probably to contemplate about what just happened and to try to make some sense out of it. How often do we step away from our busy lives in an effort to contemplate?

How often do we step back and evaluate our own lives, our friends, our hobbies, our work, and even our methods of entertainment? It is so easy to become caught up into the busy and stimulating culture that we currently live in. A culture of so much external distraction that it rarely leaves room for contemplation. I have often been told that you can hear God’s voice in the quiet of our minds. Do we create an environment and allow time each day to hear God’s voice in the quiet of our minds?

My family and I just returned a 2 days ago from another trip to small villages of Guatemala. I had been reflecting on the gospel for a few weeks and especially on the miracle of “Feeding the 5000 people with only 5 loves of bread and 2 fish.” My plan was to try and keep my eyes open while on this mission trip regarding this gospel message and bring back a piece of Guatemala to you that reflected this scripture.

About a week ago, my wife and daughter were working in the mission school, while two of my brothers, my son and I ventured off to do some work. We were asked to go to a small village by the name of “La Puerta” to help with some construction work.

Actually we ended up hammering large rocks into small rocks so they could make gravel for cement, which is a common task in Guatemala. That was an experience that I think all teenage boys should experience, taking large boulders and making gravel by pounding the rocks with hammers, but that is another story….

Anyway, after working for a while, I decided to take a break and walk about the village and I came upon a park in the center of the village.

The park had a nice area for the children to play, a swing set, was surrounded by banana trees, and enclosed on one side with a huge stone wall.

The stone wall was beautifully decorated with brightly colored paintings of people with their arms stretching up to heaven. Then I noticed the words describing the paintings….. “Feeding the 5000”….. along with today’s scripture verse.

So here I am, struck with awe, knowing that there was something very meaningful contained right here in the small village of “La Puerta.” As I walked through the village, a village of 500 people, I thought about their homes.

Most of them live in 10 x 10 stone block houses, I visited with the women that were hand washing their families clothes by scrubbing them on washing stones, I could smell the wood burning, each home cooked over open flame pits, and I contemplated their struggle in life, a struggle to just get through the day. I couldn’t help but think of the concept of feeding another person and how the idea of feeding someone could be much more than just providing food. How nourishing and helping someone can come in so many different forms. I thought about what it meant to be catholic. I though about the different faiths of the world, and then I realized that being catholic also can be problematic.

Problematic, why problematic? Well, if we believe in one God, and knowing that he created us, and made us into his likeness, also means that we are one people. Jesus made it very clear that being from the one god, a god that we call father, makes us all brothers and sisters, one family. So what is our obligation to our brothers and sisters? If we say god bless you and be well, while our brother has nothing to eat, or nothing to wear, what are we really doing? In the gospel today, the disciples asked Jesus to send all the followers away so the followers could buy food for themselves. But what did Jesus do? He instructed the disciples to not send them away, but to care for them.

What makes us different as Catholics? Different from many of the protestant faiths? Many of the Protestant faiths speak of their personal relationship with god, and focus on that relationship, while forgetting about everyone else.

As Catholics, we know that service to the poor and marginalized of the world is at the core of our faith. Our faith is not just a God and me relationship. It is a faith that is grounded in service, love, and compassion for those who are victims of injustice. We know that the injustice of the world must be resolved in order to truly experience the fullness of life that we were created for. We are about to participate in the miracle of the Eucharist. Just as Jesus in todays gospel ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, all the Catholics around the world are gathering in churches around the altar of the lord.

In today’s gospel, Jesus took the five loaves and two fish; he looked up to heaven, said a blessing, broke the loaves, and then gave it to the disciples who in turn gave it to the crowds. We are about to be nourished with this same miracle. We are about to become united and joined with the source of all created things, with what is the source of all the love and goodness in this world. He that is everything is about to become a part of us. Do we truly understand what is about to happen to us through the miracle of the Eucharist? Once united with Christ, then what are we to do? Do we leave mass today and focus on a God and me relationship? Or, do we look for the injustices of the world, the injustice afflicted on our brothers and sisters, and take some form of action to right a wrong.
As Catholics, our church believes in a preferential treatment for the poor. Why?

Because, it is the poor and marginalized that experience injustice on a daily basis. A few days ago, I sat in the simple house of a Mayan leader, a respected man by the Andreas. Andreas lived in a community by the name of San Tomas.

He told me story after story of abuses afflicted on his people, social injustice, economic injustice, educational injustice, all because they were Mayan.

He told me of a story from not to long ago, of one of the countries leaders who traveled with a Mayan lady. The sole purpose of traveling with her was to use her to consume some of his food before he ate due to his fear of being poisoned. If she lived, then he could eat the food served to him.

Andreas told me of his treatment while working on a coffee plantation. One day he was very sick and didn’t feel that he was capable of working that day. He approached the “Hefe,” the boss, and attempted to tell him just how sick he was. The boss told him, that he didn’t care, the plantation didn’t care, and that he needed to get to work or he would be replaced.

Andreas stated that they were treated as animals……. The day will come when we are all in front of Jesus and he will ask, Were you there when I was hungry, when I was naked, when I was sick, when I was imprisoned.
What will you say………

You don’t have to travel to Guatemala to see the injustice of the world. With just a little effort, each of us are able to identify different situations and circumstances in which some sort of change would enhance the dignity of an individual or even a culture. Making a change in this world not only takes faith, but courage, and effort.

As I prepared to leave Andrea’s house in Guatemala, he humbly stated that in his opinion, service his fellow people was the most important thing he could do in his life. He stated that to him, “Service was God.” Think about it….. “Service is God.” Jesus stated that he did not come into this world to be served, but rather to serve.

Do we try to fit our faith into our lives, or is our faith at the core of everything that we do in our lives. As I challenge myself, I also challenge you, to experience Jesus through the Eucharist, experience Jesus through the people in your lives, serve those people, look for the injustice of this world, take action, trust in our lord, allow miracles to occur, and make a difference.

We should never walk out of church the same person that we were when we entered the church.
We are a community of believers; we should see and feel the presence of Jesus in the community. When we hear the words of God, the words that are alive, they should speak to us in an intimate way. Then we receive the true body and blood of Jesus, or Lord and Savior. He who is everything has become a part of who we are. How could we be the same person, we have been transformed……. Hear the voice of god within you, follow him. Don’t send others away to care for themselves, but rather serve your brothers and sisters.

Create a justice for the marginalized people of the world. Take a moment and reflect of your life……. Ask yourself, Am I truly living my faith?