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July 25: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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Reading I: 2 Kings 4:42-44
Responsorial Psalm: 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18
Reading II: Ephesians 4:1-6
Gospel: John 6:1-15
I stepped into a religion class full of nine-year-olds and saw they were watching a video of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. As soon as the film ended a boy asked, “which Gospel has the boy who gave his lunch away?” Answers popped: “I’ll look in Luke;” “I’ll look in Matthew;” “I’ll look in Mark;” “I’ll look in John.” Within a minute a child announced, “Here it is. It’s in John.”
Every time I’ve told of this event I am met with incredulous stares and doubtful expressions. They’ve told me they’re not that comfortable looking up scripture references. For forty-seven years it has been my passion to incite interest in scripture. And so, we used Christianne Brussleman’s process of preparing children and their parents for the sacraments. Ours is a sacramental Church and so each part of the Mass was studied in preparation for First Communion and each was celebrated liturgically. The week we grew in understanding the Liturgy of the Word each child came forward after the homily to receive his and her small Arch book, The Boy Who Gave His Lunch Away.
The following year the children came forward during the regularly scheduled Sunday Mass to receive their Bible. They and their Bible were blessed by either a priest or catechist who also gave them an M&M on their tongue because, in ancient times, children were taught that learning God’s word is sweet.
And the entire 1000-member School of Religion purposefully and respectfully immersed themselves in scripture passages in each weekly and special family session one year, focused on various kinds of biblical prayer in every session the next year, and discerned ways to put faith in action in every session the following year. The classes still used the planned curriculum, i.e Prophets in sixth grade. Classes were enriched by ensuring a year when scripture was emphasized, a year when prayer was emphasized, and a year when faith in action was emphasized. I’ve run into adults who were children back then who’ve told me they greatly appreciate weekly and sometimes daily Mass and they expounded on their faith with joy. One said “Faith sustained me through my ups and downs;” another said, “faith gives me purpose and strength;” several said, “faith gives me courage” and many said, “faith clearly gives me compassion for those less fortunate.” Not surprising when we realize that care for the common good is written 87 times in the Bible and is the thrust of many Church teachings.
The children were prayed for by the whole Church family as they prepared for sacraments just as our RCIA candidates are prayed for throughout their preparation to join the Church. It is not enough to just tell a child, a youth, or an adult how important a scripture passage is or a sacrament is or that prayer is. We’ve got to pray with scripture with them, reverence sacred scripture, live it, and talk about its meaning and our struggles while prayerfully applying them to our lives. Some of Jesus’ message sinks in when we feed human and spiritual hunger with compassion.
Apparently, that was the case with the hungry folks who followed Jesus after hearing about him healing the sick. According to the version of the story told by John, a boy in the crowd had five barley loaves and two fish. “Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks and distributed them to those who were reclining ...” Other versions of this story have Jesus telling his disciples/followers “give them something to eat yourselves.”
The nine-year-olds who spontaneously and eagerly looked for the scripture passage, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish” were just as eager to do their part in living out as best they could the story in their own lives. How do I know that? I heard them say as soon as they found the passage about the boy’s food, “Let’s bring food for poor people next week.” I had not prompted that; their catechist didn’t suggest it but we sure did endorse it. From where did the children’s enthusiastic desire to feed the hungry come? I believe it was the Holy Spirit Who was active in that little Bible story they all received when they were preparing for First Holy Communion two years beforehand and the Bible and sweet they received, liturgically, the next year and the prayer of the community they reveled in as they took turns leading the entire community in prayer during their study week on the Universal Prayer/Prayer of the Faithful. The Holy Spirit activated the children to apply their faith; the week after their Bible search, every child in that class brought in nonperishable food and several mothers offered to take the children to a local soup kitchen to deliver their gifts.
I didn’t see Jesus take their jars of peanut butter and bags of apples to bless them and share them with hungry people but I sense Jesus enjoyed the children’s gesture.
Each time we bring our full selves, our joys and sorrows, and gifts of bread and wine to the Eucharist, Jesus takes and blesses and breaks and shares our offerings. Jesus transforms our gifts into his own Body and Blood and feeds us with himself to be the Body of Christ, the People of God alert to the Holy Spirit moving within and beyond our community. And so we have bins at the doors of our church to collect our gifts to those served by Perinton Food Shelf. Members of our parishes Social Justice Outreach Ministries bring the goods to the food shelf for people in need.
According to Fr Jude Siciliano,* “Even before the pandemic hit, some 13.7 million households, or 10.5% of all US households, experienced food insecurity at some point during 2019, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture. That works out to more than 35 million Americans who were either unable to acquire food to meet their needs or uncertain of where their next meal might come from...With the pandemic, an analysis by the Brookings Institution, conducted in summer 2020, found that in late June, 27.5% of households with children were food insecure. Meaning some 13.9 million children lived in a household characterized by child food insecurity. A separate analysis by researchers at Northwestern found insecurity more than tripled among households with children to 29.5%. Add to this, the fact that Black and Hispanic communities are disproportionately suffering.
We can continue to do what we Catholics do so well—perform work of charity by serving meals to those who are hungry or by helping to stock our local food pantry, however, this situation cries out for more. We ask WHY? And then, we must become food justice advocates. The USCCB affirms that Catholics have two feet to put love into action—one foot for charity to meet basic needs and one foot for social justice to remove root causes and improve structures and systems.”
In our first reading today from 2 Kings, “A man from Baal-shalishah bringing to Elisha, the man of God, twenty barley loaves made from the first fruits, and fresh grain in the ear. Elisha said, ‘Give it to the people to eat.’ Isn’t it interesting how many times food and eating occur in the biblical stories? The prophets of the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament all recognize that God provides abundantly. So, I am sure they must have thought something was seriously wrong when they witnessed hunger in the ancient world. How about us today? We live in an advanced society here in the United States, a country of great wealth and advantages, yet it seems that we have come to accept food insecurity as a given.”
The nine-year-olds immersed themselves in sacred scripture which moved them to do something about people’s food insecurity. If they can so can we.
By Dr Deni Mack, Pastoral Associate Emerita
*Fr. Jude Siciliano and Sr. Patricia Bruno led very well-received parish retreats at Assumption twice in the last 15 years and led a preaching workshop at St Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry a few years ago. The above quote is from Fr Jude’s internet offering First Impressions Sunday Scripture Reflections for July 25, 2021.
