Homily for the week of August 2, 2009

HOMILY: 18th Sunday 2009

First Reading: Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54

Second Reading: Ephesians 4:17, 20-24

Gospel: John 6:24-35

This week I read about Gloria, a young girl from Seattle. Gloria was born in 1996 and was like any other seven-year old. She enjoyed playing with her friends, dressing up, and watching “American Idol.” She and her family were practicing Catholics. Soon after making her First Communion Gloria was diagnosed with a cancer found only in young children known as neuroblastoma. Gloria immediately began chemotherapy treatments. Her father who was a high school basketball coach knew a reporter from a Seattle newspaper who printed some articles about her and her faith and trust in God. Why people asked what they could do for her, he would invite them to the house to pray with her. Very many did, and one day Gloria mentioned to her father that so many people started praying because of her illness. Persons of all religions would come to pray with her. This young girl brought people to God through her cancer. Gloria died on September 21, 2007 at the age of 11. Thousands showed up for her funeral.

In the Bible today someone asks Jesus: What can we do to accomplish the works of God? Gloria was given cancer and 13 years to answer this question. She and her family's faith brought them to see sickness as a means of completing the works of God. But each one of us must answer that question personally. What can I do to accomplish the words of God?

Beginning last week we are reading from the section of John's Gospel most often called the ''Bread of Life'' section. In it Jesus challenges us to ask ourselves what really satisfies us. He tries to offer us the bread that satisfies, ''the food that endures for eternal life.'' What John makes clear is that so many people, those who walked with Jesus and those who have followed since, continually misunderstand what it is Jesus offers.

The reading from the book of Exodus which we just heard shows us ourselves as we often are -- never satisfied. The Israelites had been enslaved in Egypt for some 300 years. They had prayed for deliverance, and God had delivered them. Now they find themselves in the desert. Water and food were scarce. They were thirsty and hungry. It was bad enough that they began to wonder whether leaving Egypt had been such a good idea. They were willing to go back into slavery just so they could have full bellies! There was no sense of patience for what was to come, no sense that despite the great miracles God had worked to gain their freedom that God would still take care of them.

The Psalm response suggests a question: Do we live on what God gives us or on what we try to get by ourselves? Are we satisfied with what God offers, or would we like to turn back to some period of our lives when we thought our bellies were full? Like a child who wants a cookie now, are we willing to settle for second best in order to get something now? Or, are we willing to trust God that if we take a little time we will end up with something far better?

Last Sunday we read how Jesus had fed 5000 persons with just a few loaves of barley bread. After the event, Jesus had to withdraw from the crowd because they wanted to make Him into something He was not. They wanted to make Him king because in a land that suffered constant hunger He had managed to feed them.

Again today we are told that this same crowd searched for Jesus, and found Him. They did not go in search of Him for what He really had to offer, they went to find Him to get another meal. Jesus desperately tried to tell them He had something much more satisfying to offer, but they never managed to hear Him. After all that He had done, they still asked for another sign for proof that He had more to offer than food.

And finally, what is our reaction to the gift of bread which Jesus offers us at every Mass? Does the plainness of a small wheat host prevent us from getting the real meaning of the gift? Does the fact that this communion is so easily available make it any less meaningful? Has it become a habit with me? Jesus reminds us that there is more to life than getting our stomachs filled. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD are words we pray very often.

God's goodness and abundance are all around us. Why don't we see it? Because we may be too concerned about what is next: the next meal, the next job; the next game; the next friendship. In this parish we can be thankful for the many joyful and kind families we have; for those who gives hours of their time to help; for those who come to help those in need. There is no room for jealously or competition among such a thankful community. Abundance, hospitality and gratitude are the qualities a Eucharist family.

John's Gospel is speaking of the Eucharist and faith in it -- meaning connecting ourselves to Jesus Christ, the real source of satisfaction. Satisfaction will never come unless we make God the source of it.