Many, many years ago, a friend of mine, Father Tim O'Leary, was working as a missionary in the poorest neighborhoods of Lima, Peru. One day, he went into the city for a meeting and stopped to have lunch, taking a seat at an outdoor table in front of a small restaurant.
As Tim's lunch arrived, a young boy, a street urchin, was standing on the sidewalk right there - his eyes clearly fixed on my friend's lunch plate. (Let's call him Pedro.)
Tim called the boy over and asked him if he was hungry. And you can guess what Pedro's answer was! So Tim took his napkin, put half his lunch in it, and gave it to Pedro, who thanked him profusely, and then darted through the traffic to the opposite side of the street where, on the curb, Pedro sat down with three other children, who, it turned out, were his younger brother and two younger sisters. And Pedro shared with them this little feast of clean, fresh food wrapped up in a paper napkin.
On the other side of the street where Tim was, he saw this happening, and he looked at what was left on his lunch plate - half a lunch. He put that in another napkin and brought it across the street to give to Pedro and his siblings.
Sometimes, when you take something small, and with love and gratitude, divide and share it: you can feed four hungry children on a sidewalk in Peru. OR…you can feed 5,000 hungry families on a hillside outside of Jerusalem.
When the scriptures speak of blessing and breaking and sharing (as they often do and as they do in today's gospel) the image is always intended to be Eucharistic.
And we can't talk about the Eucharist without remembering the Cross, on a hill called Calvary… and remembering a table where, on the night before he died, Jesus had supper with his friends… and thinking of a table where, on Saturday afternoons in this sanctuary, the friends of Jesus still gather (that’s you and me) to share in his sacrifice: to share in the life of Jesus - offered once for us on the cross on Calvary - but now, given and shared with us in the simple meal of the Eucharist - a morsel of Bread and a sip from a Cup.
To share in Christ's sacrifice on Calvary – sacrifice…
To sacrifice is to take something ordinary - and make it holy - by offering it up to God. Here, we offer simple gifts of bread and wine to God with thanks and praise. And because we join our offering to Christ's offering on the Cross, our gifts become one with his, our gifts become holy - indeed, we believe our gifts - become Jesus!
For my friend Tim to offer, to surrender, to hand over something as ordinary as – lunch… to give up, to sacrifice the food he was about to eat and to offer it to God, God present in his chosen people, the poor – for Tim to do this was to make of his lunch something blessed, something holy.
No, I'm not saying that Tim's lunch became the Eucharist. But I am saying that Tim's lunch became something holy, that his offering was blessed, that his gift became a blessing.
I'm reminded here are some lines written by the Jesuit priest Dan Berrigan. I included his words in the program for my first mass back in 1973 - that's how important these words were and are to me. Fr. Berrigan wrote this:
Sometimes when you take something small, and with love and gratitude, divide it and share it, you can feed a hungry man who's waiting for a piece of bread… or 4 children sitting on a curb… or 5,000 hungry families on hillside…
• So what have you and I to offer, to sacrifice to God, to make holy?
• What have you and I to give up for others?
• What have you and I to hand over, not only from our surplus, but also from what sustains us, from what we ourselves need.
• Do we understand that if the hungry and thirsty (in today's first reading, Israel, in exile in Babylon) if they had to eat and drink freely (as the Lord promised them) -- do we understand that the Lord is waiting for us to generously share and provide for them, from our sustenance? from what we ourselves need and HAVE in abundance?
I love this story about Tim and Pedro. But here in Georgetown and where I live in Massachusetts, there's seldom a Pedro standing within arm's reach of my table.
But Pedro and his younger brother and sisters aren't really ever all that far away. In fact, they are everywhere, all around the world - and they're hungry.
•Maybe that's why Jesus chose not to ask, “Okay, who has food at home?” Or “Why didn't you bring some with you?
• Maybe that's why he didn't turn to anyone, scolding them for being lazy, or telling them to “Get a job…
• Maybe that's why he didn't ask anyone why they were hungry or how they came to be without food…
• He turned no one away…
• Maybe that's why, as had been promised centuries before in Isaiah, why Jesus invited everyone to eat without paying, without cost…
He invited them to eat because (as the gospel told us today)
“His heart was moved to pity for them…”
and they were hungry…
and he had food…
There's no doubt about it. There's no escaping it. These scriptures are calling us to feed Pedro and his siblings when they cross our paths. AND these scriptures are calling us to feed the poor of our nation and of the world -- because:
we're called to love them…
and they're hungry…
and we have food...
In so many ways, we have exponentially more food than we need. And more food - much more food than 12 baskets of leftovers.
How will we do this? That is a really good question!
Remembering my friend, Tim, sitting in that restaurant table and feeding Pedro, I thought once about starting a personal practice that anytime I went out to eat, I'd keep track of what I spent, and donate 10% of that (a tithe) to my favorite charity - which happens to be a mission in Haiti.
I was feeling pretty good about this until it dawned on me that every time I go out to eat, I already give 20% of what I pay to the waiter!
I'm still working on this. And I need to work harder, because I am called- you are called, each of us is called to love our neighbor -- and our neighbor is everyone, everywhere, and especially anyone, anywhere, who's in dire need of the basic necessities of life: shelter, food, clean water, healthcare and the freedom to be and become the person God created and calls each of us to be.
Well, when you consider all of this - it's bold of us, is it not? - it's bold of us to approach the altar of sacrifice so freely, without cost. To approach the table where Jesus will feed us not with leftovers - not with 10% or 20% of his love - but Jesus will feed us with everything he has to give us: his whole life offered, laid down, handed over, sacrificed for us - that we might receive the fullness of his life, his mercy, and his love.
Such is the gift the Lord returns to us when we offer simple gifts of bread and wine… when we ask for the Spirit's blessing to come upon them… and we then break the bread and pour the cup - so that all might be fed… that ALL might be fed and become one in him.
As Jesus did for us on the Cross… and as he does for us at this Table… So let us do for Pedro and for his brother and sisters, nearby, around us… and around the whole world.
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