Homily for August 3, 2008

I want to invite your reflection on the Gospel story today. What do you think happened? Any ideas? Yes?
[Inaudible response] A miracle. Okay. Any other thoughts about what happened? Yes?
[Inaudible response] People were delighted that they were getting free fish and bread.
[Inaudible response] Good. John was saying when he was in grade school he heard an explanation that maybe everybody was hiding the food, and when the disciples started passing it out...
Megan McKenna, a wonderful, delightful Irish writer, comments on the end of the Gospel, "not counting women and children," and she surmises that the women had brought along food. And so those who didn't count saved the day.
Any other thoughts about what happened?
[Inaudible response] Good. Jay was saying he heard once of a preacher who could preach on any sentence. So they challenged him and gave him the sentence, "There was much grass in the place," and he talked about the wonderful providence of God in giving grass.
Commentators go all over the place with the Gospel. Some see a miracle. If you're a science fiction fan and like Star Trek like I do, you might think that Jesus had a replicator and replicated the bread. Others in what is described as the romantic liberal interpretation would say that everybody had food and, when the disciples started passing out the food, they started sharing.
Whatever happened, people saw a wonderful sign of God's caring and of God feeding his people. However you explain how the bread appeared, those who were there saw it as something truly miraculous. And this story must have been very important in the early church, because it's repeated time and time again in the Gospels.
I'm indebted to the theologian John Shea for a take that I want to give on the Gospel. He describes a time when, in a school that he taught at, they were planning. They studied the needs of the students, they designed a wonderful program to meet those needs, and then they looked at each other and asked, "But who's going to do it." They realized that they didn't have the staff to implement the wonderful program that they came up with.
In the our parish, when we plan,  we have meetings in which we come up with wonderful ideas, Then we sit, we look at each other, and we say, "But who's going to do it?" We realize we don't have anybody to do those wonderful things that we came up with. Frequently, we realize that we don't have the resources to do those wonderful ideas that we came up with,
So I can relate to that story by John Shea, because we sometimes meet and think of wonderful ideas, and nothing happens because we never tie down who's going to do it and what resources we need. John Shea says that's what happens when you begin with need. And he points to another dynamic in the Gospel today.
Jesus calls their attention to what they have. They have five loaves and two fish. Jesus calls them to give thanks for what they have, and he calls them to give it away. He blesses it and a miracle takes place.
As I thought of that, I wanted to suggest to you there are two ways we can approach things. One is up here in our head with statistical thinking, logistical thinking, and planning, and that has its place and is very good. But there's also a spirituality that is encompassed in the word "stewardship," and that's where we begin, with what we have. We begin with awareness of the blessings that God has given us, and we give thanks for those blessings. We allow ourselves to be blessed by them, and we give them away. And, when we give them away, something wonderful happens. Abundance is generated.
Let's pause and think of that in our own lives. Think for a moment of what you have, of what God has given you, and allow yourself to feel blessed by that and to feel gratitude. And then ask in what way is God calling you to give of that.