(This homily is geared toward our parish “Growing in Faith Day”. It focuses on the gifts of community, faith and the Eucharist.)
I have recently had two events occur that have allowed a reset in my life. The first was a gift I received for volunteering at Bays Mountain Park. It is a large insulated cup that allows me to now drink water throughout the day rather than automatically turning to soda. The second was a simple suggestion I received from my doctor to try to avoid “white” foods (i.e. potatoes, white bread, white rice, pasta).
These two things may not sound like much but I have been trying to live by them for a couple of weeks now and I can tell that they are having an effect. My energy level is more consistent throughout the day where it was not before, I’m sleeping better and I even think that some weight is starting to come off. I can now pull my belt in another notch!
Sometimes we need resets in life and they do not even have to be big in order to create lasting and beneficial effects and often even a mundane change can have spiritual impact. Now that I am sleeping better and have more consistent energy throughout the day, I am finding that I am actually attentive and praying during my morning holy hour rather than snoozing! This basic and often overlooked connection of the physical and spiritual it witnessed to in today’s first reading when the angel gives the very practical instruction to the prophet Elijah to “get up and eat” in order to have strength for the journey!
Resets are needed in the journey of life – individually and also in the life of community. Today is a bit of a reset for St. Dominic Church. It is not that the parish is not being community nor that faith and worship is lacking but (as with all things in life) we can get running and busy and without even thinking about it not realize that we are not really acting to full healthy capacity and are rather running on fumes. Here is another health tidbit – the second most traded commodity in our world today is coffee and therefore caffeine. What does that say about our world and our lives? Before my reset I was drinking caffeine pretty much all day long but caffeine is a diuretic – it allows a form of energy but it dehydrates at the same time. Sometimes our souls and our faith life can get dehydrated even as we honestly strive to live the life of faith.
Today, the Day of the Bible scheduled for November 3rd and 4th (Fr. James McIlhone will be with us and will talk about the parables in Luke’s gospel) and the other “Growing in Faith Days” we have set for spring are days for our parish as a whole to hear the instruction of the angel to get up, to eat, and to drink in order to be strengthened for the journey. Today we are being nourished in three ways and by three gifts.
Our society is biased toward the individual but here is a truth that we need to be reminded of – the individual needs community. We are nourished by community in a multitude of ways and on a multitude of levels – many of which we are not always even aware of. Yes, community takes work and it requires commitment but the community of faith which is the Church gives back more than it ever requires. It has been noted that Christianity cannot be a spectator sport but neither is it a solo act. We live the journey together. A person cannot be Christian without Church. As we come together today as community in Christ we are nourished.
There is no graduating from learning about and growing in our faith. There is always more to learn, to comprehend and to understand. No caring parent would want a child to stop learning with the conclusion of high school yet so often we are content to think that faith formation ends with the eighteenth birthday! Ridiculous! We are meant to be transformed, “from glory to glory”. Today is an invitation to take another step in understanding our faith and being further transformed in our relationship with Christ, our Lord and Savior. In this we are fed and our deep thirst is met.
“I am the bread of life,” says our Lord, “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.” The Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ and as we receive the Body and Blood of Christ we, ourselves, are transformed! In the gospel we are told that the people “murmured” about Jesus among themselves. On our own we cannot get there. All we can do is murmur. We need Christ – his grace and his body and blood given in the Eucharist – to make the journey and to ourselves be transformed. Only in the gift of Christ can we move from murmuring into proclaiming by our words and our very lives the Kingdom of God! Every time we gather for Mass the only bread “that comes down from heaven” is offered. May we never fail to receive and be nourished.
May God bless our St. Dominic community and may we listen to the instruction offered by the angel to get up, to eat, to drink and to be once again nourished for the journey!
On this Sunday we are given an invitation. After the feeding of the multitude and our Lord withdrawing for some solitude we are told that the crowds in today’s gospel (Jn. 6:24-35) come in search of Jesus but their intent is not the most sincere and our Lord is aware of this. “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.”
For a couple of weeks now I have been leading a weekly discussion group on Pope Francis’ recent Apostolic Exhortation “Rejoice and Be Glad”. In this exhortation, the Holy Father is encouraging every member of the Church to recognize and embrace his or her own unique call to holiness. The exhortation is a wonderful document and, I believe, it shows forth Pope Francis’ training as a retreat director steeped in the Ignatian practice of discernment.
Living in our social media age has led me to ask the following questions in light of today’s gospel (Mk. 6:1-6). “If Jesus were alive today would he be on Facebook?” “If he were on Facebook, what would he post?” “How would we react to his posts? Would we like them, would we unlike them, would we unfollow him, would we perhaps even defriend him?”
I recently read a daily reflection that made the following point: “Just as nature abhors a vacuum, Jesus abhors vagueness.” In one sense it is easy to speak in generalities and vagueness in regards to faith and God. “Yes, I love God. I love all people. I want to help and serve everyone. I want peace for the whole world.” It is easy to say these things in the general sense but how do we live in the particular moment? Can I show love to the person I don’t like or understand? Can I be patient in a chaotic moment of family life? Can I take time to pray even though the demands of the day seem unceasing? Can I choose hope even in a time of pain and loss? Can I seek justice in moments of injustice? Can I turn the other cheek even when I am wronged? It is not in speaking nice generalities but rather in the choices of particular moments that the Kingdom of God is found.
The movie “Romero” tells the story of the events leading up to the assassination and martyrdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. (Archbishop Romero will be canonized a saint this coming fall.) Romero served as archbishop during a painful time of violence and unrest in his country. During this conflict, the archbishop made the choice to stand beside the poor and for this he was killed.
It is said that a tree is known by its fruit and in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles we can see that the tree of the resurrection is already bearing amazing fruit! And, here specifically, in the life of Peter.
Nicodemus is an interesting figure in the gospel. He is a devout man and someone who is intrigued by Jesus. Nicodemus believes the Jesus is a teacher of God and that the signs which Jesus does prove that God is with him yet Nicodemus wants to fit Jesus into his own paradigm, into his own narrative about how God should act. Before the passage we just heard we are told that Nicodemus comes to Jesus, “by night”. Nicodemus is attracted to Jesus but he is still in the darkness of his own presumptions. How often we are like Nicodemus. How often we know people like Nicodemus.
On my recent vacation in the Canadian Rocky Mountains I learned about the chinook wind. The chinook wind is a rapid climate phenomenon produced by specific atmospheric conditions interacting with the stark geography of the high mountains. If all the proper conditions line up correctly a chinook wind is produced which is a steady stream of warm air that flows down from the mountain tops into the valley below on the eastern side of the Canadian Rockies. This wind has been known to sometimes melt thirty inches of snow in the course of a single day! The largest temperature shift produced by a chinook wind was recorded in the seventies when the wind moved the temperature from forty degrees below zero to forty-five degrees above zero in a twenty-four hour period. In the frigid cold of a Canadian winter the chinook wind is a promise of spring and an end to winter.
It is helpful to know some of the background to today’s first reading. Eli had two sons but neither were fit by their actions which were sinful to receive the blessing of God. When Eli finally realized that God was calling Samuel this would have been in his awareness and he would have realized that God’s call to the youth Samuel was also a judgment on his two sons. They would not receive the blessing; rather Samuel would. Eli could have tried to thwart what was going on in favor of his two sons but he did not. When he realized what was occurring he instructed the youth (who was not his son) to respond by saying, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”