Ordinary 17

The Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

2 Kings 4:42-44; Psalm 145; Ephesians 4:1-6; John 6:1-15

People are hungry. There is not enough food. Someone complains.  et there seems to always be more than enough. There is nothing miraculous about these stories in the Gospel and the Book of Kings. They are quite ordinary. The situation happens every day.

Any grandmother knows you put another handful of pasta into the water. Any good master of the kitchen knows how to “stretch” a meal. Interestingly the poor are especially adept at this ability. I am reminded and recommend to you the book, “The City of Joy” by Dominique Lapierre or the children’s story “Stone Soup.” There is the experience of a son or daughter who comes home from college with an unexpected classmate or two or three. In these situations there is openness, acceptance, lively conversation, and an unusual willingness to share at these times.

What is detrimental to such situations can be simply a lack of imagination. Worse. Skepticism: “What good are five barley loaves and two fish for so many?” “How can I set this before a hundred people?”  Even worse. Blame. Remember the garden scene. Everyone got blamed, including God, for the situation.  It is always easier to place blame or complain than to simply and directly address a situation of need.

The prophet Elisha and Jesus don’t mince words – they take action. With vision and some frustration Elisha repeatedly orders: “Give the loaves to the people to eat.” Jesus instructs the people to sit down and relax on the grass, he gives thanks for what there is and begins himself to hand out food.

In our country, 1 in 8 of our fellow citizens live at risk of hunger which includes approximately 13 million children. And though hunger rates have been declining since 2011 many Americans struggle to put food on the table. Now putting food on the table is one thing. Putting healthy food on the table is another. Processed and canned foods which are cheaper are also filled with salt and preservatives. Fresh, organic, home grown food is, as you know, more expensive.

That is why nutrition programs like SNAP – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly called Food Stamps) and WIC – Women, Infant and Children nutrition program and school meals provide millions of families and children with nutritious food. Tax credits for low-income workers and children do more than reduce hunger and poverty; they encourage work more than any other program.

Remember though such governmental programs and food pantries like our own do not address the causes of hunger and poverty. They are only bandages on the open wounds of humanity.

Jesus asks us, as he did Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” 

Hunger is not a choice.  Alleviating hunger is.

Budgets are moral documents. And whether they are our house, parish, work, diocesan or government budgets, they reflect our priorities. Congress is preparing the budget for fiscal year 2019. I am inviting you to make your voice heard and immediately after Mass to sit at the tables we have provided in the church and write letters to our legislators encouraging them to continue these vital programs. If your schedule does not allow you to stay, you can take a sample letter and the addresses of our legislators home with you and write letters during the week. Handwritten letters are a more effective way for our voice as Christians and citizens to be heard in the halls of Congress.

We ask that all letters be returned next weekend to church where we will pray over them and members of the Peace and Justice Committee will deliver them.

Saint Teresa of Kolkata, who served among the poorest of the poor in India said, “Prayer is not asking.  Prayer is putting yourself in the hands of God, at God disposition…”  Prayer is an openness to being used as God wants to use us.

As we continue in our prayer, place yourself in God’s hands. Be open to God speaking to your heart. How might God want to use you to alleviate the hunger of our sisters and brothers?