July_31_2005

Homily for July 31, 2005
Liturgical Year A-Cycle I
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
by Fr. John Carney
Topic: Give What You Have
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Gospel
Mt 14:13-21
When Jesus heard of it, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns. When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said, "This is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves." (Jesus) said to them, "There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves." But they said to him, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have here. Then he said, "Bring them here to me," and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over--twelve wicker baskets full. Those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children.

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I ran into a kid outside of church this morning and he said, “Mommy, pay the man and let’s go home!” Isn’t it a beautiful morning? Every time I step outside the door, I say, “My, are we blessed!” This is truly the Land of Enchantment. I was in New York City last week. That’s not the land of enchantment! It’s so hot and so busy, and I was so glad to get back I was happy I went. Think about that.

Have you ever got to the point where you said to yourself, perhaps just in passing, I’m not going to watch the news anymore? There are so many problems in the world. There always has been. But there are so many problems in the world, where do you start? Every night we see images of war, violence, and terrorism. We are just waiting for the next terrorism incident to happen. It’s no longer “if” but “when.”

I was reading statistics on world health the other day. There are some nations in Africa where more than 20% of the population are living with AIDS, or dying with AIDS – over 20% of the population of the nation. In spite of the technology we have, there are still millions of people who are hungry. Not because of the lack of food – the hand of the Lord feeds us, He answers all our needs – but because of the lack of justice, good economies, tribalism, war and all those things. It’s depressing.

Some people have just given up. They’ve become cynical, and they say, “Well, forget it. I’m just going to get my little piece and take care of myself.” I think most of us really do care but we have also asked ourselves the question, “What can I do about it? What difference can I make? What difference can one person make?” In purely human terms, the answer is, “Not much.” The problems are so great and our resources, individually are so small. The scriptures today are intended, I think, to help us to understand, maybe, what we can do.

The people that we see in Matthew’s Gospel, who have come to listen to Jesus, had a problem. They were hungry. The disciples said to the Lord, “It’s getting late and these crowds are hungry.” The Lord said, “What should we do?” Their answer was typical, “Get rid of them, send them away. It’s not my job to feed them. We don’t have the resources.” Jesus said, “No, you give them something to eat.” They said, "There are only five loaves and two fishes."

In John’s Gospel (and by the way, this account is in all four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), it says there was a boy there with five barley loaves and two fishes. I can see that boy approaching Jesus and Jesus saying, “Can I have what you have? Can you give me what you have?” And the boy does. Then Jesus offers it up and blesses it, and distributes it. Everyone is fed. Not only that, there is so much left over it fills 12 wicker baskets. Twelve is an important number; 12 tribes of

Israel

, 12 months of the year, 12 apostles. Twelve is the number of completeness. In other words, when Jesus feeds us, when we give Him what we have and trust our possessions to Him and our lives to Him, then He in turn will feed the world. There will be enough left for all eternity, for everyone, of every nation and of every tribe.

We see that one person can make a difference. Not in human terms, maybe, but in spiritual or in faith terms. Actually, it’s two persons – one person and Jesus. That’s what we do at this mass. We give Him our lives, He offers them up to the Father and He feeds us, and we all go away filled, not with bread that will perish, but with Himself, Jesus Christ, eternal life.

Another scripture reminds us of the truth that we must give of ourselves if we are to live. John’s Gospel says, “Unless a grain of wheat dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Perhaps you have had the opportunity, like I have, to drive through the wheat fields of Kansas or Nebraska, right before the crop is harvested. Miles and miles and miles of wheat, and the tops of the plants are just sagging, heavy with grain. But every one of those plants started as one seed that had to die, to give of itself, so that this bountiful harvest could occur. The same is true in spiritual terms. If you and I were those seeds and we gave of ourselves what we could, what we have, it would be a bountiful harvest in the world of peace and justice. Certainly that would occur in our own home town. Certainly if we gave of ourselves, sacrificially and freely, our families would be healthy and happy and holy.

Many of you, I am sure, are familiar with the columnist Art Buchwald, a long time columnist for the Washington Post. He is syndicated so he was in many newspapers. He had one column that has become somewhat famous, especially to anyone who preaches for a living. It’s called, “Love and the Cabbie”. Maybe you have heard it? Buchwald tells the story of a visit to New York, himself and a friend. They took a cab to wherever they were going, and as his friend paid the cab driver, he told the cab driver, “You did a magnificent job, today. I really appreciate it.” The cab driver turned around and said, “What are you, a wise guy?” You just don’t say things like that to people in New York. He said, “No, seriously. You got us here in good time, quicker than we expected. And I really admire the way you can weave through traffic. It’s just an incredible talent.” The cab driver just said, “Yeah,” and drives away. Buchwald said to his friend, “What are you doing?” He said, “I am starting a campaign. I’m going to bring love back to New York.” By the way, he failed, but he tried. So, Buchwald said, “What do you mean?” He said, “I was really nice to that guy. What I told him was true. If he has 20 more fares today, he will be nicer than normal to those 20 fares. They, having experienced a nice cab driver, which is a treat, will in turn be kinder and friendlier to their families and other people. So, you see, it’s a ripple effect. I’m starting this ripple of good feelings. Just as we can start a ripple with anger and hatred, we can start a ripple with love and goodness.” They got out of the cab and as they were walking along the street around noon, there were five hard hat construction guys eating their lunch, sitting on their pails eating their sandwiches. Art’s friend went up to them and said, “You guys are doing a great job on this building.” They just looked at him. He said, “When will it be finished?” One of the guys grunted, “June.” And he said, “It’s really going to help this neighborhood. We appreciate what you are doing. You are making our city more beautiful. Be careful because construction work is the most dangerous work in the world.” And they went, “yeah, yeah” and walked away. Buchwald said to his friend, “Who do you think you are, Don Quixote? I am walking through Manhattan with the Man from La Mancha here.” His friend said, “No! It works; we’ve just got to keep this thing going.” As they were discussing this issue, Art Buchwald looked at his friend and he said, “Hey, you just waved at a very plain looking woman…” (That’s not actually, well that’s close enough) He said, “Yeah, I know I did. If she is a school teacher, her class is in for a good day.” You get the idea. This ripple of goodness, of kindness, has great effect.

Let me give you a personal testimony of a cab story that happened to me last week. I got to New York on Wednesday. The driver was from

Bangladesh

and we were talking about the problems in the world, with terrorism. Obviously, he was Moslem and he had three kids. He was living in upper Manhattan, South Bronx, trying to make a living for himself and his family and he was hurt by all of the terrorism. He took me to my destination, and I got out. A few hours later I realized that I had lost my cell phone. If you have ever lost a cell phone, it’s like losing a wallet. I had 307 names and numbers in that phone, many of them yours! I thought, “Oh, what am I going to do?”

I called the church office. I figured that maybe whoever found it would call the last number I dialed. I spoke to Joan but she said that no, there were no calls. I went to the Verizon store. I told them I lost my cell phone and said it’s probably in the cab. The Verizon fellow said, “Do you have insurance?” Who started that? Insure your phone? So, I said, “No.” He said, “We have some specials. I’ll shut off the service on that old phone and we’ll get you into a new phone today.” So, I said, “Well, what happens if someone finds it and tries to call me?” He said, “This is New York. If you’ve lost your phone in a cab, you’ll never see your phone again.” And I said quite honesly, “Well, I gave the guy a $15 tip.” He said, “I don’t care if you gave him a $1500 tip. You’re not going to find that phone.” I said, “No, leave the service on.”

I went to a ballgame, got back to the hotel, and there was a message from Joan, “Mohammed has your phone.” What happened was a friend of mine, Will Garvey, called me on my cell. He said some guy answered and said, “Hello, Mohammed!” And Will said, “Oh, wrong number.” He called again, and the same guy answered and said, “Hello. This is Mohammed.” And Will said, “Is John there?” He said, “No, but I think after hearing your question that I have John’s phone.” So the cabbie said, “Give me John’s phone number and I’ll get the phone back to him.” And Will says, “His number won’t help because you’ve got the phone!” Anyway, he took Mohammed’s number and I called him and we had a rendezvous at Central Park West and I got my phone back. “Yea, Mohammed!”
Doing the right thing has a ripple effect and sometimes it comes right back at you. That was the best $15 tip I ever gave anyone in my life.

Give to the Lord what you have and He will do the rest. That’s what the boy did with the loaves and fishes and that’s what we are to do. So be generous. We have to be generous. I've never in my life, met a person who was stingy and happy. Have you? Never. They are incompatible. You cannot be cheap and be happy. You can’t. A generous heart, a willingness to share yourself with others, and not only with money--I mean, goodness and service, and a willingness to help others, makes a person happy.

If we give what we have to Christ, what little we have, it would be more than enough to change our parish, our family, our community, our world. That’s the promise, the Good News of this Gospel today.

I’d like to conclude with a prayer. This prayer is from St. Ignatius Loyola. Today is his feast day, July 31. He founded the Jesuits. So please, as we pray, if you would bow your heads.