Monday, June 24, 2019

One Body



"The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to Him and said, ' Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions, for we are here in a deserted place.' But He said to them, 'You give them something to eat.' They said, 'We have no more than five loaves and two fish- unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.' For there were about five thousand men. . . Jesus, taking the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to Heaven and blesses and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled. What was leftover was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces." -[Luke 9: 12-17.]

Just today, I helped the Community Outreach ministry, by transporting some of the over 200 bags of groceries donated by parishioners, to the town food pantry.

The director of the town food pantry greeted us joyfully. It is summer and the shelves of the pantry are almost bare. Low-income children who eat free breakfast and lunch at school are out of school, so they go hungry. Hunger knows no season or even social class. A family living in a mansion may find that the main bread winner has been laid off. The house is worth a lot but you cannot eat from an asset value.

People for centuries have wondered about the meaning and the explanation of the parable of the Loaves and Fishes.

At its heart, this parable speaks to me about hunger. In the crowd around Jesus, the hunger was not visible. And yet, it was there.

I grew up a hungry child. In my dysfunctional family, we had money and we had assets but I was fed inconsistently. At age five, I had learned the signs that would portend what nights I would receive no dinner. I had to learn the days of the week. Wednesdays were a poor bet for dinner. I would eat a bigger lunch at school. Then, I would appear at a neighbor's house, looking very hungry. Often, the neighbor, a poor widow herself, would give me a piece of bread with butter and a glass or two of milk. One mom would see that I might be cold and give me a bowl of chicken soup.

Today, I wonder if we see the hunger in others? I had a physical hunger as a child. But I also had a spiritual and emotional hunger. I was never hugged or told, "I love you." I was called a failure. If I reported that I was cold, I was told to, 'Stop acting up.'

The tender Love in this parable makes me teary-eyed. It is all that I longed for as a child. All that I lacked.

In a Christian church, we are one Body. We are all different, with different races, social classes, needs, gifts and talents. We are equal in the eyes of God, but we are not the same. Each of us is critical to the health of the whole.

The Body of Christ is not just in the community, but is in each one of us. Upon our Baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, and draws us closer to God's Son.

In case anyone believes that all this is just theological "mumbo-jumbo", there are real life consequences for this belief-

When I help another person, I am seeing and aiding the Jesus who abides in him.

When I tear another person apart, with my words or my actions, I am tearing apart Jesus.

I cannot even walk away and ignore another person in the world. . . because we are all part of one body. I am responsible for you, and you are responsible for me. We are one. If I walk away from another person, leaving him to flounder on their own, I am walking away from Jesus!

I can say, "Well, you are Jewish, or a slave, or a woman or, or. . ."  But the call is to encounter everyone, Jewish or Gentile, man or woman, slave or free.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, " In a real sense, all life is inter-related. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

This is the meaning of the parable of the Loaves and Fishes. Jesus multiplies the Love exponentially, by offering His Body up for us. He says, Whatever you do unto the least of my brothers, you do unto me.

As a child, I received one bowl of soup, one piece of bread and butter. I received a ride home from a neighbor, on a cold day. Now, the great multiplier is Jesus Himself. As I see His face, His need, in all the people who are hungry, I feed the many.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer says in his book, "The Cost of Discipleship", "It is impossible to become a [new creation in Christ], as a solitary individual. It is the Spirit who brings Christ to each several member, who builds up the Church by gathering individual members together."

This is why Jesus says to His disciples, "YOU give them something to eat."  This is why Jesus says to His disciples, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." -[John 13:35].

(c) Spiritual Devotional 2019. All Rights Reserved.




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