Day: August 2, 2008

Homilies,

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First reading: Isa 55:1-3
Psalm: Ps 145:8-9, 15-16, 17-18
Epistle: Rom 8:35, 37-39
Gospel: Matt 14:13-21

The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.

What an amazing thing it is to have life in Christ Jesus, for He feeds us and answers all of our needs.

All of our readings and today’s Gospel point to the fact that God gives us everything. We see God’s giving nature when we see the manner in which He gives us all the things we recognize as basic needs. Whatever our basic need the authors show them as being met.

In our first reading from the prophet Isaiah we recognize our lack, and God’s giving. We are thirsty, God sets the water before us and says come to the water. We have no money, we can come and receive grain and eat — for free. Without paying or cost we receive wine and milk! We shall eat well and delight in rich fare. In the end by listening to God, by heeding Him, and by coming to Him we receive the most precious gift of all — life.

The psalmist sings of God’s gifts. He declares that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. God is good and compassionate to us, His works. He feeds us from His hand and answers all our needs: food in due season; the desire of every living thing.

In God’s giving we have the very same assurance St. Paul saw; that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. The sadness of the world and the powers of nature cannot match God’s loving gift to us. When we face anguish, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, angels, principalities, present things or future things, powers, height or depth, any creature, the sword, life or death itself, even all if they be combined against us are not enough to overcome God. God among us and with us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Gospel story is well known. It exhibits Jesus’ power to feed us from our inadequacy. The few loaves and fishes equal our inadequate gift. In seeing Jesus’ use of our poor offering, our poor selves, we come to the realization that His love, His giving conquers all.

Brothers and sisters,

God speaking through Isaiah asks:

Why spend your money for what is not bread;
your wages for what fails to satisfy?

Looking closely we see that God lays all these gifts in front of us. He says: —Here’s the water.— Then He asks us to come and drink. There’s the disconnect. All the gifts are there, all the opportunities to take our fill are before us, but we have to do it. We have to go for the water that’s there.

We think that the problems we face in life are exactly the excuse we need to step over God’s gifts. It is the willful way we choose to ignore the water that’s right in front of us and to go in search of other water, water we think will be sweeter or more satisfying. We fail when we choose to drown out God’s gifts by failing to recognize that all fulfillment rests in God. When we reject total unity with God and His teaching we fail. We fail when we spend all we have, up to and including our everlasting souls, on the things that will not satisfy.

Friends,

Certainly we are in a tough position, with all the noise around us, all the choices that seem easier than choosing the water God gives, but as my older daughter recently told me, just remember to breathe. Each breath we take is a pause in the time line, a brief respite to focus on what’s right in front of us. What’s there is God’s gift.

Here we are, today, so let’s start. When we come forward to receive the Lord in the Eucharist we should just stop and breathe. Look at the gift presented to us. Breathe, pause a moment, and say Amen to the gift.

Recognize that He is feeding us and He is fulfilling our needs. His grace is transformative. In that moment and in its aftermath we are changed.

Change will come because God promises it. By choosing God’s gift we will recognize the moment and the gift. Thereafter we will recognize more moments and more gifts. We will begin to recognize that God is taking the meager gift we have to offer and that He is changing our small gift into a bigger, better, more perfect gift. In the end we will forget about chasing after that other water. Our unsettled hearts will settle on and in Christ. We will be fed by His word and our way of life will become all — in and for God.

By our conformity to God, by our transformation we become God’s gift to the world. Our transformed selves work within His Holy Church to spread the joyful message. It is the message Bishop Hodur proclaimed, that our Holy Polish National Catholic Church continues to proclaim, it is Christ’s message — see the gifts I have laid before you, the food that is everlasting. Come to Me, be healed, be transformed, be regenerated, have life and live forever.

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.”

Amen.

Fathers, PNCC

August 2 – St. Barnabas from The Epistle of Barnabas

The way of light, then, is as follows. If any one desires to travel to the appointed place, he must be zealous in his works. The knowledge, therefore, which is given to us for the purpose of walking in this way, is the following. You shall love Him that created you: you shall glorify Him that redeemed you from death. You shall be simple in heart, and rich in spirit. You shall not join yourself to those who walk in the way of death. You shall hate doing what is unpleasing to God: you shall hate all hypocrisy. You shall not forsake the commandments of the Lord. You shall not exalt yourself, but shall be of a lowly mind. You shall not take glory to yourself. You shall not take evil counsel against your neighbour. You shall not allow over-boldness to enter into your soul. You shall not commit fornication: you shall not commit adultery: you shall not be a corrupter of youth. You shall not let the word of God issue from your lips with any kind of impurity. You shall not accept persons when you reprove any one for transgression. You shall be meek: you shall be peaceable. You shall tremble at the words which you hear . You shall not be mindful of evil against your brother. You shall not be of doubtful mind James 1:8 as to whether a thing shall be or not. You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain. You shall love your neighbor more than your own soul. You shall not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shall you destroy it after it is born. You shall not withdraw your hand from your son, or from your daughter, but from their infancy you shall teach them the fear of the Lord. You shall not covet what is your neighbor’s, nor shall you be avaricious. You shall not be joined in soul with the haughty, but you shall be reckoned with the righteous and lowly. Receive as good things the trials which come upon you. You shall not be of double mind or of double tongue, for a double tongue is a snare of death. You shall be subject to the Lord, and to [other] masters as the image of God, with modesty and fear. You shall not issue orders with bitterness to your maidservant or your man-servant, who trust in the same [God ], lest you should not reverence that God who is above both; for He came to call men not according to their outward appearance, but according as the Spirit had prepared them. You shall communicate in all things with your neighbor; you shall not call things your own; for if you are partakers in common of things which are incorruptible, how much more [should you be] of those things which are corruptible! You shall not be hasty with your tongue, for the mouth is a snare of death. As far as possible, you shall be pure in your soul. Do not be ready to stretch forth your hands to take, while you contract them to give. You shall love, as the apple of your eye, every one that speaks to you the word of the Lord. You shall remember the day of judgment, night and day. You shall seek out every day the faces of the saints, either by word examining them, and going to exhort them, and meditating how to save a soul by the word, or by your hands you shall labor for the redemption of your sins. You shall not hesitate to give, nor murmur when you give. “Give to every one that asks you,” and you shall know who is the good Recompenser of the reward. You shall preserve what you have received [in charge], neither adding to it nor taking from it. To the last you shall hate the wicked [one]. You shall judge righteously. You shall not make a schism, but you shall pacify those that contend by bringing them together. You shall confess your sins. You shall not go to prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of light. — Chapter 19.