18th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2026 - "Give them some food yourselves"

 

Each of the four Gospels contain several different stories of Jesus eating with people. He ate with Pharisees and Scribes, tax collectors, prostitutes, and public sinners, he of course he dined with his beloved friends and disciples. In today’s Gospel he breaks bread with thousands of people. In so many of these meals recorded in the Gospels, the Lord takes the opportunity not just to eat, but to teach, by word and example, offering, in fact, some of his most important teachings.

For example,. He dined with hypocritical and antagonistic Scribes and Pharisees, why? Of course, to urge them to repent and believe, but also to give us an example. We need to associate even with people who hate us in hope of their conversion—that God willing through conversation and meal, they can get a glimpse of the goodness and truth to which they have become blinded and maybe come to believe.

The Lord ate with tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners, why? To show them that God invites all people out of love to exchange the stained garments of sin for the wedding garment of the righteous. And also, again to give us an example. We too are to dine with such people. We are to dine with the unrighteous because that’s what the Lamb of God did in order to invite them to His heavenly banquet.

The Lord ate with his disciples, why? To strengthen them, to teach them, to share intimate moments with them. He dined with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and set their hearts on fire with faith. He dined with the apostles on the seashore even after they fled the cross and went back to fishing instead of venturing to the ends of the world to spread the Gospel. At the Last Supper he gave us his flesh and blood to be shed on the cross so that we may become what we receive in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. We are to dine with each other, week after week, at the Lord’s table that our hearts might catch fire, to heal the wounds of sin and division and to be strengthened in love for one another and in holiness for the mission of the Gospel. We are formed as missionary disciples, as Pope Francis rightly said, in the context of what we are doing here, eating and drinking as the Lord commanded us to do.

In the Gospel today, the Lord shares a meal with thousands of people, why? Well, let’s dig in.

Firstly, we see the Lord’s care for the real physical needs of his people. After a day of teaching and healing thousands—he doesn’t want to send them away hungry. Growing up Italian, I get this…no one should leave your home hungry. If you have the chance, feed people. Who doesn’t love being fed. You know someone cares for you, when they feed you. The way to a man’s heart is his stomach, in a very real sense.  

So, we are to feed people. Feed the hungry, it’s an act of charity in imitation of the Lord himself. Notice, too, that none of these thousands of people are named, in the Gospel story today. They are the nameless hungry of the world. We are to feed them, without judgement. They are hungry, so feed them.

Next, is a great detail, and a challenging one. When the disciples bring this concern for the people to the Lord, the Lord responds, “give them some food yourselves.”

“You give them something to eat, you do something to solve this problem.” The Lord speaks those words to you and me.  As members of the Church, God gives us the tremendous responsibility of being his hands and his feet out in the world, feeding the large crowd of the world with physical bread and also leading them to the meal of the spiritual bread of the Eucharist.

Some of you might remember, that In the 1950s and 60s, a movement called Catholic Action which aimed at rallying the Catholic lay faithful for the work of the Gospel out in the world. And Catholic Action had a motto, very simple, three words. “see, judge, act.”  See, judge, act.  First see, open your eyes to what is going on in the Church and in society and in your neighborhood.  Second, judge: make a determination of what can I do, how can I help, how can I serve.  And thirdly, act—if you can do it, do it.

“You give them something to eat.” This is a very challenging teaching because we have a tendency to want to pass the buck on to someone else.  We see a problem and say “someone ought to do something, someone ought to take care of this.”  But today’s Gospel challenges our tendency to remain uninvolved or paralyzed by fear. “You give them something to eat”.

We have a personal responsibility to do what we can in all the different dimensions of the life of the Church:  standing up for life, standing up for religious freedom or the rights of the oppressed, feeding the poor, teaching the ignorant, spreading the Gospel, it’s not merely the pope’s job, or the bishop’s job, or the pastor’s job; every Catholic bears the responsibility for the work of the Church and spreading the Gospel. “You give them something to eat.”

So, on one hand, we have a personal responsibility for the work of God, but, thankfully, on the other hand, we are in it together, we are to work together. The Lord’s command is addressed in the plural—“you all together give them something to eat”, but that just means doing everything I can to work together with my brothers and sisters in Christ for the mission of the Gospel. We bear personal responsibility to work together.

Then at the heart of the story is the miracle. When told to feed the thousands, the disciples do what they can, they gather food, but they find, that it is not enough. “All we have are these five loaves, a couple fish.” So the Lord responds,  “Give them to me!” 

The spiritual lesson?  You and I are to give what we have, even if it is very little, to Christ and it will be multiplied.  Give Christ your mind, your will, your energy, your compassion, your earthly treasures.  See, judge act. Give it to Christ, and you will find that it becomes multiplied for his purposes. 

Catholic parishes, like ours, are just like that small group of disciples, looking at its meager possessions, saying, what can we do with these fives loaves and two fish. But coming together, despite our limitations, we offer what we have to the Lord, and the Lord multiplies.

I’ve been so impressed over this last year as pastor to witness the great generosity of so many of you—giving your time, talent, and treasure for the mission of the parish, and I’m very excited for the years ahead, to witness how the Lord continues to multiply the gifts that are brought forth to him.

But I do encourage you, please consider how you can contribute to the mission of the parish—whether in volunteering in our parish events, participating in ministries, or discerning new ones. I love when parishioners come to me with ideas of ways they’d like to get involved. I love helping you discern how you can put your gifts and talents—your loaves and fish--in service to God.

So, I repeat the invitation I made when I began my pastorate, if there’s any ministry that you’d like to get involved in, or a ministry that you’d like to start up, please let me know. That’s why we are here, To see, judge, act, and to put our loaves and fishes into the hands of God.

In your daily prayer especially, ask the Lord, what can I do to help, what are the needs that I am called to act upon, what are the loaves and fishes of my life, that you want me to hand over to you, how are you calling me to work together with my fellow parishioners, my brothers and sisters in Christ, for the work God has for us, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

 

5th Week in Ordinary Time 2025 - Wednesday - Achieving inner integrity

 There appears to be a bit of a contradiction in our readings today. In the first reading, for eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God say, the consequence is death: “the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die”.

On the other hand, the Lord Jesus, speaking to a crowd says that “nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person”. Nothing you eat can corrupt your soul.

How do we reconcile what God says in the first reading and what he says in the Gospel? Well, in the first reading, it was not the fruit itself that was somehow spiritually poisonous. It was not as if this was some mystical fruit that had the power to corrupt man’s nature. What was spiritually deadly, wasn’t the fruit, rather, what was spiritually deadly was the decision to disobey God. And that decision is made in the soul, from within.

As the Lord explains in the Gospel, “from within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”

Our decisions--—our deliberate actions—matter. Our use of our free will has spiritual consequences. When we use our free will to act in accordance with the divine will of God, we grow in virtue—we habituate ourselves to what is good—to goodness itself.  The Catechism says, “The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions. The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God…The virtuous man is he who freely practices the good. The moral virtues are acquired by human effort. They are the fruit and seed of morally good acts; they dispose all the powers of the human being for communion with divine love.(CCC 1803-1804)”

On the other hand, when we misuse our freewill to act in discord with the divine will, contrary to the purpose for which we were made, our souls are corrupted—we are habituated toward what is harmful to our minds, bodies, heart and soul. Choosing evil allows the powers of death to continue to pervert our natures meant for divine life. 

Even with the help of grace, the example of the saints, the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, our life is a constant battle. One of the great lines out of Vatican II reminds us, “Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God’s grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity.”

But inner integrity and sanctity can be achieved through effort, through faithfulness, through love. May we allow the victory of Christ to achieve victory in us today, in our decisions, our deliberate actions, in our struggle to do what is right, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

- - - -  

With confidence in God’s grace and a desire to grow in virtue, we bring our prayers before the Lord.

For the Church: That she may faithfully teach and inspire all people to choose good over evil, and to live in accord with God’s divine will.

For those in positions of leadership—civil, religious, and community leaders:

That they may govern and guide with integrity, promoting what is just and right, and resisting the corruption of selfish or sinful motives.

For all who struggle with temptation or with persistent sins: That they may be strengthened by God’s grace and the support of the Christian community, and find the courage to choose the path of virtue.

For those who have been hurt by their own or others’ misuse of free will: That God’s healing mercy will restore them, renew their hope, and guide them toward forgiveness and reconciliation.

For those who suffer in body, mind, or spirit: That the Lord will bring them comfort, and that our loving actions may be a sign of God’s care and compassion in their lives.

For our beloved dead: That they may be granted eternal rest and behold the face of God in the heavenly kingdom.

Merciful Father, you have given us the freedom to choose good and the grace to follow your will. Hear the prayers we offer you this day and help us to grow in holiness. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024 - Eucharistic Missionaries

 Back in 2022, the Church in the United States began a multi-year initiative of Eucharistic Revival. In the first phase of the Revival, each diocese had gatherings of the faithful. So back in June of 2022, members of the faithful, clergy and religious from the various parishes and institutions gathered with the bishop for a eucharistic procession and mass at the cathedral. We had four members from our parish attend that event launching the Eucharistic Revival.

I’ve continued to meet with those parishioners regularly. Our Light for Love program, in which we opened up the church for the evening, and invited passersby into church to pray with us in front of the blessed Sacrament was just one event that was born out of that diocesan eucharistic synod.

Following the launch of the Revival, each diocese around the country then began to prepare to send representatives to the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, which was held last month. It was the first National Congress in 80 years! 

And what a week it was! There were about four to five hundred Catholics just from our diocese, including 8 from our parish, who joined the 50 to 55 thousand Catholics from around the country for the Congress. It was truly incredible to join so many of the faithful for prayer and worship and faith formation. And even though some of the music was…not quite my style…to join so many souls in prayer for an outpouring of grace—for the Holy Spirit to deepen our love and appreciation for the Eucharist—was truly a awe-inspiring. God is at work to invigorate Catholics in our nation that we may be a light shining in the darkness.  I do hope that our Eucharistic Missionaries will be able to share with you their experience in the coming months.

The Eucharistic Congress began the final phase of the Eucharistic Revival—what the Bishops are calling the Year of Mission which will last until July of 2025. The Year of Mission. Mission, of course, comes from the latin word – missa, which means to be sent. And it is the Bishops’ desire that for the next year we seek to deepen our sense of mission—that especially through the Eucharist God missions us, he sends us into the world. God strengthens us through the eucharist for a purpose, for a reason.

We gather for Mass every week, not simply out of obligation, but because through the Mass God does something—in us, with us, through us. At Mass, we encounter Jesus Christ—we receive him— as food for the journey, the journey out of the doors of the church, into the world, in order to witness, to draw souls to Christ.

The very word Mass, comes from the same latin word, missa, mission. Jesus gathers us in order to sent us out.

In the first reading, the prophet Elijah is being sent by God on a very long mission—a forty day journey to the mountain of God, Mt Horeb—and what does God say to Elijah--"Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!" 

Similarly, in our journey to the mountain of God, heaven, Jesus gives us his flesh to be our food for the journey—because our human strength is insufficient. The Eucharist is the strength we need—it is the spiritual food for the spiritual journey—the journey of being a disciple of Jesus Christ every day—carrying our cross, forgiving our enemies, bearing wrongs patiently, and being attentive to the needs of others, sharing the truth.

The Eucharist strengthens us for the journey, but there are also a lot of things that weaken us on our missionary journey—which can even cause us to fail to finish the race. St. Paul lists some of them in our second reading: “All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice.” Why MUST they be removed? Because they weaken us, they cause us to stumble in the journey. These attitudes, these choices, must be set aside, or else we will not progress in the spiritual life; they diminish the life of God in us.

The Church teaches that Mass is the most important thing we are to do every week. And likely, many of us are not getting as much out of Mass each week, because we are unwilling to let go of those habits and attitudes that the word of God urges us to let go of. 

One reason to make a good holy hour each week, or to make a regular confession, is to humble ourselves before the Lord in order to let go of things that you need to let go of. So often, we are confused about God’s plans for us, or we don’t see the improvement of our relationships with family and friends as we’d like, or we’re bored or unfulfilled. It’s because of those things we are unwilling to let go of. 

But when we trust the Lord to lead us out of those toxic, sinful habits and attitudes, we come to enjoy a freedom, a reconfiguration and realignment, and a discovery of the mission for which God made us—which is the source of joy that nothing in the world can provide.

Speaking of mission and missionaries, today we welcome a true missionary, a sister of the missionaries of the holy rosary, and we will have the opportunity to support the missionary religious orders like hers in our second collection. I now invite sister to the ambo.

30th Week in Ordinary Time 2021 - Friday - The Lord feeds, heals, and quenches

 All four Gospels contain accounts of the Lord eating and dining. All four record the last supper, for example. But Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record the Lord’s supper in the house of the tax collector Levi and St. John is the only to record the Lord’s attendance at the wedding feast at Cana.

St. Luke is the only evangelist to record the meal in today’s Gospel passage in which the Lord heals the man with dropsy in the house of a pharisee on the sabbath.

This story is not the first time that the Lord has healed someone on the sabbath, but it is the first time he heals someone at a meal. He combines healing and eating. It’s also interesting who he heals. He heals a man with dropsy. Dropsy is a condition in which there is a build-up of fluid in a persons tissues, and so because of this imbalance with fluid, the person with dropsy is always thirsty—they are perpetually thirsty. And so here the Lord combines healing and eating and satisfying unending thirst.

What does that makes you think of? I don’t know about you, but this certainly makes me think of what we’re doing right now. In the celebration of Mass, the Lord feeds, the Lord quenches thirst, and the Lord heals

In the Eucharist, the Lord feeds us with his body and blood, giving us spiritual nourishment for the work of the Gospel and the pilgrimage to heaven. In the Eucharist, the Lord heals us of sinfulness, pride, grief, loneliness, division, and estrangement from God. And in the Eucharist the Lord quenches our thirst for the infinite God—like a dry weary desert our souls thirst for Him, and here that thirst is quenched.

Commenting particularly on the healing properties of the Eucharist, Pope Francis, said a few years ago, that the Eucharist is “powerful medicine for the weak”. We have many weaknesses: fear in preaching the Gospel, timidity in doing the work of the Lord, weaknesses of the flesh, the lack of willingness to suffer for Christ, temptations to sin, concupiscence. And the Eucharist is medicine for these weaknesses. And those who deprive themselves of the Eucharist, refusing to go to mass, deprive themselves of real medicine the Lord wishes to apply to their souls.

The Eucharist is also medicine for the greatest of our weaknesses: mortality. 

St. Ignatius of Antioch, writing to the Ephesians said that the Eucharist is the “medicine of immortality…and the antidote  which  wards  off  death.” It “yields continuous life  in union with Jesus Christ.”

May we dispose our souls as often as possible to this food from heaven, the food that heals, the food that quenches for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - - -  

For those who are deprived of the Eucharist, for lapsed Catholics, for the unbelieving, for those who doubt the Lord’s real presence, for those who have hardened their hearts toward God, and for a deeper appreciation of the great gift of the Eucharist among all God’s people. Let us pray to the Lord.

That young people will be blessed with good Christian example from their parents and fellow Christians, and that the word of God might be cherished, studied, and practiced in every Christian home. 

During and following this month of October, dedicated to the Most Holy Rosary, Catholics may take up this devotion with renewed vigor and trust in Our Lady’s never-failing intercession. 

For the healing of all those afflicted with physical, mental, emotional illness, for those in hospitals, nursing homes, hospice care, those struggling with addictions, for those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for deceased clergy and religious, for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2021 - Food for the journey

 

The Prophet Elijah is certainly one of the tenacious, courageous heroes of the Old Testament. Immediately preceding today’s first reading, Elijah had been led by God to confront the wicked King Ahab and Jezebel his Queen for forsaking the One True God of Israel and worshiping the Canaanite idol, Baal.

To prove the superiority of the one true God, Elijah challenges the priests of Baal to a sort of test. You know the story. Two altars were constructed: one for Baal, and one for the one true God of Israel. The prophet whose God consumed the sacrifices would be proved to be the true God. 

So the 450 prophets of Baal, begin to wail to the skies, crying out to their idol for hours, but to no avail. They then gashed themselves with swords and spears to invoke their God, but nothing happened, the altar remained. “Why don’t you scream louder” Elijah says, mocking them, “maybe Baal can’t hear you. Maybe he’s away on a trip. Maybe he’s asleep and can’t get up.” Sweating, bloody, and exhausted, the prophets of Baal, gave up, doubting that Elijah could do better.

So then it was Elijah’s turn. God’s prophet began by drenching his altar with water. And then he prayed. God wishing that his glory be made known sent fire from heaven and incinerated the sacrifice. The audience cheered and proclaimed the God of Elijah as the True God. 

Queen Jezebel, however, rather than accepting Israel’s God became furious, and vowed to kill Elijah. So Elijah flees into the desert, where we find him at the beginning of today’s first reading. The desert, symbolic of Elijah’s situation. Success had turned to apparent failure—victory into defeat. Alone in the desert, distraught, hunted, abandoned. Elijah feels so forsaken, as we heard, he even prayed for death. In his despair, he cries out to God, and even though he found himself in the middle of this barren desert: God hears his plea and sends an angel, twice, to feed him.

Notice, Elijah is fed, not so that he can stay in the desert and wallow in his misery. Elijah is fed, so that he can begin a new journey. God had more work for him to do. And this journey was not going to be easy. It’s going to take him 40 days and 40 nights. But God would provide him food to strengthen Elijah for this journey. And Elijah walked 40 days and 40 nights to the mountain of God, Mt. Horeb, also called Sinai, where God gave moses the 10 commandments. And there on Horeb, you know this story too, Elijah looks for God in the wind, but God was not in the wind. Elijah looks for God in the earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake. Elijah looks for God in the fire, but God was not in the fire. Finally, Elijah hears a small whispering sound, and it is in that whisper for Elijah finds God.

What a roller coaster of a story. Elijah, is given a task by God in which he is largely successful. But then that task has serious consequences for Elijah and he encounters a real low place in his life. He prays to God, and God hears his prayer, and feeds him for a difficult journey. Finally, Elijah comes to his destination, and encounters God in a way he did not expect.

This story is so powerful because it’s our story. Our lives are filled with successes and failures. Times when we seem to be bringing about great victories for God’s kingdom, times when we are experience real consequences for our faith, and then times when we feel utterly useless. Times when God’s ways are not easy to understand, when he leads us on some mysterious journey,  even climbing uphill, with terrible forces set against us. And times when we are looking for God and he’s not where we expect to find him.

But in the middle of it all, in our Catholic life, is food, food for the journey. Like the angel who feeds Elijah with physical food, to build up his strength, the Lord feeds us with food from heaven, the Eucharist, to help us face all those tasks, all those challenges, all those low moments, all those uphill climbs, with strength that comes from Him.

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

Christians recognize in the Lord’s self-description as bread, God’s desire to feed us with the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist throughout our lives. 

Whatever we are feeling, whatever we are going through, our first reaction should always be to come to the Eucharist to be fed by God. In our great successes, like Elijah against the prophets of Baal, we come to give thanks and share the food of victory.. When we are chased into the desert by God’s enemies like Elijah and God is no where to be found, we must search him out here, where he has made his presence known under the appearance of bread and wine. And when he calls us on the mysterious journey, to enter into the unknown, to climb a steep mount, we must come here to be fed with the food for the journey.

It is an invaluable practice, when you come to Church, before Mass begins, to kneel down in your pews, facing the tabernacle and to make a little examination of conscience. This is important preparation for Mass. And kneeling there to ask yourself: why am I here?? What am I struggling with, at this very moment in my life? What are the blessings for which I’ve returned to this altar to give thanks? 

Am I at a low point in which God cannot be detected in your life? God help me to see you in the strange, mysterious events of my life? 

Kneeling before mass we do well to identify these things? What am I joyful about? What am I sad about? Angry about? Fearful about? It is important to get to mass early, to express these things to God. And to recognize that in the Eucharist we are about to celebrate is the answer to your prayers. The strength we need, the grace we need to remain faithful to God amidst all the challenges of life is given, in the Eucharist.

Also, praying before mass, we do well to identify those people, those closest to us, who have fallen away from God, who do not know, or have forgotten, that Jesus is here waiting for them. Before Mass call them to mind, bring to God their woundedness, their suffering, their confusion, their addictions. Ask God, through this Eucharist, to help you be the instrument of leading them home, here, to the family table, to Jesus who loves them and wants to feed them with the supersubstantial bread that will enable them to survive this earthly journey with our souls intact. 

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

May the Eucharist we celebrate and share today help us to remain faithful to God throughout all of our challenges, to know God’s presence with us throughout those challenges, and be led through them, to eternal life, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

18th Sunday in OT 2020 - "Give them some food yourselves"

Each of the four Gospels contain different stories of Jesus eating with people: he attends the wedding feast at Cana. He took meals with tax collectors, prostitutes and public sinners—inviting the most excluded into the company of believers. He ate with Pharisees and Scribes challenging their preconceptions, urging them to acknowledge and repent of their hypocrisy. And of course he ate with his disciples—taking the Passover meal with them—changing bread and wine into his Body and Blood the night before he died. After his resurrection he eats fish with the apostles on the seashore.

Today’s Gospel passage about the feeding of the large crowd is found in all four Gospel. The Lord had been teaching and healing thousands of people out in the desert, and when evening came, as we heard, the disciples wished to dismiss the crowd so they could buy food for themselves. The Lord however, does not like to send people away hungry, not if he can help it. 

So, instead of dispersing this crowd, the Lord draws them together, intending to feed this vast crowd through a miracle. But notice, he involves his disciples in this miracle:  “you give them some food yourselves.”  The disciples solution was to send the crowd away to fend for themselves, but the Lord says, no, in the communion of the kingdom of God we bear each other’s burdens.  We don’t say “it’s your problem” and your problem alone.  We are in this together.  World hunger, it’s not someone else’s problem; poor understanding of the faith, it’s not someone else’s problem.  Laws being passed which are repugnant to the dignity of human life, or which erode religious freedom. it’s not someone else’s problem.

We have a tendency to want to pass the buck on to someone else.  We see a problem and say “someone ought to do something, someone ought to take care of this.”  Standing up for life, standing up for religious freedom or the rights of the oppressed, protecting our religious statues from an angry mob, feeding the poor, spreading the Gospel, it’s not merely the pope’s job, or the bishop’s job, or the pastor’s job; every Catholic bears the responsibility for the work of the Church and spreading the Gospel.

“You give them something to eat, you do something to solve this problem.” He speaks those words to you and me.  As members of the Church, God gives us the tremendous responsibility of being his hands and his feet out in the world, feeding the large crowd of the world with physical bread and also spiritual bread—the truth of the Gospel and relief for the suffering. 

Some of you might remember, that In the 1950s and 60s, a movement called Catholic Action which aimed at rallying the Catholic layfaithful for the work of the Gospel out in the world. And Catholic Action had a motto, very simple, three words. “see, judge, act.”  See, judge, act.  First see, open your eyes, what is going on in the Church and in society.  Second, judge: make a determination of what can I do, how can I help, how can I serve.  And thirdly, act—if you can do it, do it. “You give them something to eat.”

After issuing this command the disciples respond, “all we have are these five loaves, a couple fish, and there are five thousand people here, not counting the women and children.  So we are supposed to do something?”  True, sometimes all we can do is identify, that personally, I don’t have enough to do all this work myself. We need each other and we need God.

So the Lord responds,  “Give them to me!”  And he multiplies them in such a way that every person is fed and filled, and in fact, there are twelve baskets left over.

The spiritual lesson?  You give what you have, even if it is very little, to Christ and it will be multiplied.  Give Christ your mind, your will, your energy, your compassion, your earthly treasures.  See, judge act. Give it to Christ, and you will find that it becomes multiplied for his purposes.  

Catholic parishes, like ours, are just like that small group of disciples, looking at its meager possessions, saying, what can we do with these fives loaves and two fish. But coming together, despite our differences, we offer what we have to the Lord, and the Lord multiplies.

I’ve been so impressed over the last few months during COVID of the great generosity of our parishioners and friends. Parishes, larger than ours are having greater difficulty paying the bills, many have even had to cut back on some of their charitable outreach. But not St. Ignatius. We’ve seen our SVDP flourish and working very hard to meet the needs of the hungry and those who may have lost their jobs or having difficulty paying the rent. Our Legion of Mary has needed to set up extra chairs at our weekly meetings. Daily mass and first Friday holy hour have been very well attended. And of course our Garden Club, making our grounds look so splendid and beautiful. I’m also very happy to hear that a small group of parishioners have formed a new prayer group, the Seven Sister’s Apostolate, to pray for priests. 

We’ve had some challenges though. We are certainly in need of parishioners to step-up to take leadership on some of our fundraising efforts. Our golf outing, our gala committee, the clambash, we need some leaders to step-up. And of course, inviting some of those parishioners who have sort of fallen by the wayside over the last decade, back to Church. And of course, evangelizing, inviting non-Catholics, searchers and seekers, to come and see what we are doing in here.

So, I repeat the invitation I made a month ago when we announced Sister Dianne’s resignation, if there’s any ministry that you’d like to get involved in, please let me know. I invite you again, to see, judge act. To ask yourself and ask the Lord, what can I do to help, what can I do to serve, what do I need to entrust to God, that he may multiply it for his purposes.

But what is not given cannot be multiplied, what is not offered-up will not be transformed. So let us be generous with the Lord, with offering our time, talent, and treasure, our creativity, our passions, and our sufferings for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

2nd Week of Easter 2018 - Friday - Hungry for God

Having read through the entirety of Jesus' discourse with Nicodemus from chapter 3 of St. John's Gospel over the past four days, we now begin a week long reading of John Chapter 6.  St. John's sixth chapter is comprised of two miracle stories—the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and Jesus walking on the water—and the great Bread of Life discourse.  I encourage you to read and reflect upon the entire chapter to get a sense of what's coming over the next 8 days.

With Nicodemus, Jesus spoke of the waters of spiritual rebirth. Those who are immersed into the waters of baptism are immersed into the saving death and resurrection of the Lord. St. Paul explains this in his letter to the Colossians:  "You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead"

Well, if the first set of Scripture readings after the Easter Octave point to the importance of the Sacrament of Baptism, this second set of readings, from John 6, is going to point to the Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood, the Eucharist.

The Catechism explains: “The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, when the Lord says the blessing, breaks and distributes the loaves through his disciples to feed the multitude, prefigures the superabundance of [the] unique bread of his Eucharist.” This connection was clear, even to the early Church. In second-century catacombs, we find artistic representations of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves to symbolize the Eucharist.

Part of our Easter faith and our Easter journey every year is to deepen our appreciation, love, and gratitude for the new life we receive through Christ: new life begun in baptism, new life strengthened in confirmation, and new life sustained in the Eucharist.

Just as the Lord fed the hungry crowd, the Lord feeds man’s deepest hunger with the Eucharist. All of us hunger for truth, justice, love, peace, and beauty. In a word, we are hungry for God. And that hunger is satisfied, here at the table of the altar.

Sadly many Christians, like ill-natured children, refuse to eat what they are served, many refuse to sit at the table and sup. But here at the altar, we are sent out to them, to draw them back here, to Christ.

May the Eucharist, our food, our life, our joy, continue to sustain us for the work of the Church, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
- - - - - - - -

Filled with Paschal joy, let us turn earnestly to God, to graciously hear our prayers and supplications
.
For the shepherds of our souls, that they may have the strength to govern wisely the flock entrusted to them by the Good Shepherd.

For the whole world, that it may truly know the peace of the Risen Christ.

For our own community, that it may bear witness with great confidence to the Resurrection of Christ, and that the newly initiated hold fast to the faith they have received.

For our brothers and sisters who suffer, that their sorrow may be turned to gladness through the Christian faith.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.