18th Week OT (M)
You can't start a project by counting what you don't have. I can't sit down and start composing a homily by listing out all things I don't have on hand. The list would be too long to contemplate! I start with what I actually need and inventory my supplies. Something to write with; something to write on – preferable something portable; lectionary texts; some quiet time to pray, then all the rational and physical faculties necessary to write in the language I know well. What I don't have could fill several stadiums. Worrying about that list will paralyze me, and the homily never gets written. Think about those hungry people waiting on Jesus and the disciples. They hear the disciples tell Jesus, “ALL we have is five loaves and two fish.” ALL we have. IOW, we don't have 5,000 loaves and 5,000 fish. Stomachs start to rumble. Jesus, knowing what happens when a little is blessed, says, “Bring me what ya got.” What happens? A little becomes a lot. Everyone is fed. And there are 12 baskets of leftovers. When we start with what we have, add praise and thanksgiving to the gift, God multiplies in abundance. Even to the point of excess.
Traditionally, we've read this miracle as a foreshadowing of the Eucharist. And it is that. But the Eucharist itself is “a pledge of future glory,” a foreshadowing of our eternity in the presence of the Beatific Vision. You and I are just what we have. No more, no less. If we start our life in Christ by listing off what we don't have, we spend that life in scarcity. Religious life is just one way God gives us to add together all we have and all we are to build abundance. With that abundance, we give Him thanks and praise for our gifts and watch them multiply. What I don't have is given by another. What I have is given to someone who lacks. And that exchange of gifts is basis for the Eucharist. But none of this is possible w/o the abiding presence of God and our eagerness to receive Him into our lives through surrender and thanksgiving. The hungry crowd takes and eats the blessed fish and loaves. Their hunger, their willingness to receive and bear witness to the miracle feeds Christ's mission. The Word spreads. More follow. And there are so many gifts given that there're leftovers. Contemplate on what you have. What you have been given. Give it all away to make room for God's abundance.
