Our readings for the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time are:
- 2 Kings 4: 42-44
- Psalms 145: 10-11, 15-16, 17-18
- Ephesians 4: 1-6
- John 6: 1-15
- God is good
- It's easy to come to look upon God as a cosmic vending machine that responds to prayer. If we treated a friend that way, the relationship would not be ultimately satisfying for either party. Prayer, at its best, is all about relationship.
- What are your deepest needs? The basics like food, shelter, physical safety doubtless come to mind. Further consideration might yield things like the need to be needed, purpose in life, meaningful work ...
- Do you feel as though God has always provided your deepest needs?
- What have you had to do in satisfying those needs?
- How have you helped others help God to satisfy their deepest needs?
- Calling upon Him in truth
- Prayer should change us. An old Jesuit brother once told me that as he ages, his prayer gets simpler and simpler as he and God draw closer and closer.
- Do you think that God resents us when we pray for the wrong things?
- Do you think that if you ever did pray for something that God knew was not life-giving for you that God would somehow let you know?
- Has that ever happened to you?
- How did you come to change your prayer over time?
- How did that change you?
- Freedom in chains
- The apostle Paul was in prison when he wrote Ephesians. He had no way to tell when, if ever, he would be released. Yet he felt free. An old Jesuit of my acquaintance once said "as I age, I am less and less mobile, and yet more free to serve the Lord."
- If you had just one freedom, what would that be? Freedom to live where you want, work at what you want, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, ...?
- Most of us might say "freedom of religion" after some thought. But what does that really mean? Is it all about weekly Church services, the ability to attend meetings, celebrate sacraments, or is there something deeper?
- If you had complete freedom of that deeper sort, what would you be able to do?
- What would such freedom ask of you?
- What's stopping you?
- Saving my barley loaves
- Jesus could have conjured fish and bread from thin air. But He started with the barley and fish that God had already given to us, and the labor that someone had already put into backing that bread, catching and cleaning the fish, and used that as the starting point.
- Have you ever had a time in life when you felt torn between the need, the desire to do something to improve the situation, to bring about the Kingdom of God, and yet you feared that giving of yourself to that cause would make no difference, and still cost you?
- How did you get past that fear?
- What was the result?
- Why do you think God worked in that way?
- Preparation for Reconciliation
- Where is God calling me to speak and act boldly?
- How can I help God bring about the Kingdom in the life of someone that I know?
- Where do I have freedom that I'm not stepping into yet?
- Where is God calling me to give it away?
Market Economy
We knew that Jesus was going to be near, and we had to hear Him again.
His words put everything into perspective, showed what was important.
I had started out with so many questions seeking answers.
But gradually, steadily, I had come to desire just to be in His company.
When we arrived at the meadow where He was,
It was already crowded, and boisterous.
Families from the surrounding villages greeting kin and friends.
Sharing stories of their encounters with Jesus.
How He had changed our lives.
Some of us had journeyed from a distance to be here.
Most had not thought to prepare the way that my family had.
There was talk among some of them that they would soon leave.
In order to make their way home again for sustenance -
Before Jesus had even begun to sustain us with His word.
My mother prodded me, pointing out our cousins from the next village.
They had no food of their own, and young children among them.
She told me to go share some of our food with them.
So that we could stay here, together, as family with Jesus.
I looked at all of those cousins and knew that we were going to go a little hungry.
As I walked toward them, I looked at the little knots of people there.
Simple folk, just like us. Some I knew, many I did not.
Most of them unprepared to stay for long.
Most of them already wondering why they had come.
Unsure what to do next.
I could see Jesus and His closest followers up on a low hill in the distance.
And I turned in their direction, without immediately knowing why.
But as I got closer, it came to me that I could not keep this sustenance
Just for my family, near and far.
So I approached one of His disciples.
They were clearly anxious about something.
The disciple asked me what I wanted.
I gave him our provisions, and said:
"I want to make a difference.
Please give this to the Master, and see what He can make of it."
Shalom!
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