Fr. Rick’s Homily – 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Fr. Rick Sherman
August 2, 2020
Is 15:1-3
Thus says the LORD: All you who are thirsty, come to the water!
You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat;
Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk!
Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy? Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare.
Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life. I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:8-9, 15-16, 17-18
R. (cf. 16) The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all and compassionate toward all his works.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
The eyes of all look hopefully to you,
and you give them their food in due season; you open your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
The LORD is just in all his ways and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
Rom 8:35, 37-39
Brothers and sisters: What will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord
Gospel Mt 14:13-21
When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, 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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The readings today are very elemental and yet very mystical. Probably everything we need to know is found right here or points to other basic elements of Catholic teaching.
As I was reflecting over these readings during the week, a popular book from the 80’s came to mind: All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulguhm. Probably many of you are familiar with the book and maybe even have a poster which summarized the basic points of the book. I thought I might share some of Fulguhm’s own reflections in the 25th anniversary edition:
Credo from All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten – Robert Fulguhm
“To begin with, did I really learn everything I need to know in kindergarten? Do I still believe that? Here is the original essay, followed by my editorial reaction.
Each spring, for many years, I have set myself the task of writing a personal statement of belief: a Credo. When I was younger, the statement ran for many pages, trying to cover every base, with no loose ends. It sounded like a Supreme Court brief, as if words could resolve all conflicts about the meaning of existence.
The Credo has grown shorter in recent years—sometimes cynical, sometimes comical, and sometimes bland—but I keep working at it. Recently I set out to get the statement of personal belief down to one page in simple terms, fully understanding the naïve idealism that implied.
The inspiration for brevity came to me at a gasoline station. I managed to fill my old car’s tank with super deluxe high-octane go-juice. My old hoopy couldn’t handle it and got the willies—kept sputtering out at intersections and belching going downhill. I understood. My mind and my spirit get like that from time to time. Too much high-content information, and I get the existential willies. I keep sputtering out at intersections where life choices must be made and I either know too much or not enough. The examined life is no picnic.
I realized then that I already know most of what’s necessary to live a meaningful life—that it isn’t all that complicated. I know it. And have known it for a long, long time. Living it—well, that’s another matter, yes? Here’s my Credo:
ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life—learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
Wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup—they all die. So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned—the biggest word of all—LOOK.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all—the whole world—had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.” Robert Fulguhm
I began the homily today by stating that today’s readings are very elemental and yet very mystical. Probably everything we need to know is found right here or points to other basic elements of Catholic teaching.
From the gospel: “You give them something to eat. Bring me what you have. He took them, looked up to Heaven (thank you God), blessed them, broke them (divided them) and then GAVE THEM TO HIS DISCIPLES TO IN TURN GIVE THEM TO THE PEOPLE. There was plenty for all!
Although there was definitely a miracle going on in the feeding of the 5,000 (more like 15 or 20 thousand) there is also some basic, elemental stewardship. Everything good comes from God, we need to acknowledge this every day, bless His gifts, divide them up and give everyone what they need. And there will be plenty with some left over. Give them what they need, not necessarily everything they want.
Earlier in the first and second readings we hear the very clear message that God is always looking out for us and we can depend on His care for all our needs. No matter how severe our circumstances, “…anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.” St. Paul is convinced that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
That seems pretty straight forward. Why sweat anything? Under all possible circumstances, God is there for us and anxious to give us exactly what we need. Halleluiah!! The Good News!!
Well in all this, IMPLEMETATION is always the big problem. In Romans 7:14-19 St. Paul describes this implementation struggle in his own life: “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold into slavery to sin.What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.…..The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.”
I think most of us can probably relate to this dilemma……. “The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not.”
This is where the mystical part of today’s readings come in. Most of us probably recognized the familiar language of Jesus in the gospel today from our attendance at Mass. He took the bread, looked up to heaven, blessed it, broke it and gave it to his disciples ……
His words and action were prefiguring the Eucharist which is the spiritual food that is absolutely essential for “doing the good that we want to do, but also avoiding the things we hate.” This Eucharist is the real presence of Jesus: body, blood, soul and Divinity. The grace we derive by receiving the Eucharist worthily is the personal presence of Jesus with us. It allows us to live life on the next level and even on the heavenly level. We can do the good we want to do and in fact, know the good and do the good that God wants us to do….
In the first reading from Isaiah the Lord tells us, “Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare……”
Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life. I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David.
Here we go with the implementation dilemma again….. Do we really WANT to be in a covenant relationship with God? Do we want the same responsibility as God for what happens in the world? For our lives and for the rest of the world. In a covenant relationship, such as marriage, both parties have the same responsibility for faithfulness. By giving us the Eucharist and then sending us the Holy Spirit at Pentecost we have, collectively, the ability to be God’s spouse, to be God’s presence in the world. In the Eucharistic prayer we are prompted to ask God to “grant that we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ.” This is the mystical element I spoke of earlier. When we commit ourselves to God and the Church community we are lifted up into the indwelling love of the Trinity. We actually participate in God’s life and love on a whole transcended level. When we take on the Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge and Piety availed to us at Confirmation, we have the ability to KNOW right from wrong and have the strength to actually do what we want and avoid what we hate. We can also ‘feed’ others with the real ability to provide what is truly needed for a holy, happy life. With this power of God in us we can fulfill the promise in Isaiah today and feed the people richly and abundantly. We will not hunger and thirst for what does NOT satisfy.
When Jesus directs the disciples to gather what they have, multiplies it and then instructs them to distribute the food to the people (with twelve baskets left over) He is clearly anticipating the commission of the 12 to go forth and feed the people with the Word of God. To go forth and teach the nations.
In our country and world we are facing some unpresented challenges and might be in for some real paradigm shifts. One definition of a paradigm shift is “a time when there are no experts.” It should be a golden age for the Church as we recommit ourselves to the fundamentals of our Tradition: The 10 Commandments, the Spiritual and Corporeal Works of Mercy, the Sacraments, Prayer, Catholic Social Teaching and a deeper understanding of the 7 Deadly Sins (“the things we hate”).
Today’s citations from Psalm 145 proclaim that: “The eyes of all look hopefully to you, and you give them their food in due season; you open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.”
People are in the streets and on the corners clamoring for change and justice (and saying ‘hooray for our side’). They need Jesus. We are beginning to see much more clearly the inequities throughout our culture and indeed the world. We ALL need Jesus and everything that His Church prescribes.
This week might be a good time to get out the Catechism and start a thorough review of its well-developed description of the 10 Commandments and any of the other fundamentals of our Faith. Jesus is also telling us along with the apostles, “YOU give them something to eat”