Nineteenth Sunday in
Ordinary Time
I thought today I would go
into the first reading and kind of bring out some reflections from that really
very beautiful reading. Here’s the
prophet Elijah. He had just had a confrontation
with the prophets of Baal which were the false prophets and many of them were
killed as a result of that so Queen Jezebel is saying, “What you did to my
prophets I’m going to do to you.” So
literally Elijah was running for his life.
He had been trying to preach to the people of Israel, trying to bring
them back to their true faith and they weren’t buying it as well. So everything he was trying to do, you see
him as being frustrated, discouraged, it’s not happening and he’s tired, he’s
worn, he’s out of shape and he’s literally running for his life. And as he says he came to broom tree. I guess he wanted a clean sweep—oh boy—are
you listening? Come on. A broom tree though is like a shade tree in
that part of the world. I don’t know
what it looks like but the commentaries say it was a big tree. People would sit underneath it to get shade
from the sun.
So Elijah sits down and he
says, “Enough Lord, take my life.” He’s
saying, “I’m done, finished, famished, exhausted, rung out, nothing left, I’m ready
to go.” And what happens? He falls asleep. Then he gets tapped on the shoulder by an
angel. And there next to him is a jug of
water, an little earth cake.
Okay. Two very simple things I think we can bring
out of that. Have you ever felt like in
a sense you were under a broom tree? You
didn’t make the team, your savings have been wiped out by the economic
turndown, maybe you lost your job, you didn’t get the raise, or if you do have
a job now they are making you work extra hours and if you complain about it you
know you’re going to be out on the soup line as well, there has been sickness
and death in your family. All the things
of the world, all the wars, the poverty can be very depressing. Last night the tornadoes, the storms, the
rain. As I said earlier thank God had
blessed us last weekend with our beautiful weather. This was St. Vincent dePaul’s festival this
weekend and I know they had to shut down last night because of all the
lightening. So I’m sure that all of us
have literally felt like Elijah under that broom tree. Exhausted, tired, worn out. Wondering where am I going to get the means
to go on? Is it worth it? Is anybody paying attention? Does my family recognize all the things I try
to do for them?
I would imagine there are
some people here who have sons and daughters who don’t go to Catholic church
any more. You did the best you
could. You raised them in the faith. Perhaps you even sent them to Catholic
school. And now where are they? If they are attending some other church,
wonderful. But probably a lot of them
have just bailed out.
We all have people in our
own relatives and relationships too that we know don’t come to church any more
or practice their faith. And you ask
yourself, “Well why am I sitting here this morning?” Because you know deep down in your heart that
God really does love you and you’re here this morning with all the other people
sitting here with you in this church right now to be nourished, to be strengthened
for the journey like Elijah. You can cry
out in desperation, “Enough Lord” but then sit down and then allow the Lord to
fill your cup back up. That’s what we’re
here for this morning. To allow the Lord
to nourish us, to fill us up with the Bread of Life.
In the gospel again Jesus is
trying to tell the people it isn’t just the food that you see in front of you
and on your plates, but I’m giving you something that’s for eternity. And they don’t get it, they just don’t get
it. You and I get it. That’s why we’re here right now. Because the food and the nourishment of this
Eucharist will sustain you into eternity.
And in the meantime, before
you and I get to eternity, on the journey of life here in this world we are
being nourished and strengthened and given the encouragement and the hope we
need. How does that happen?
The second point I think out
of that little reading is so simple you might have missed it. Here was a jug of water and an earth cake at
his head. Sometimes we are so wrapped up
in our pain and our hurt and our sorrow or whatever is going on inside of us we
miss the simple little things that are right next to us, or around us. It might just be in the smile of a
child. A friend of mine was telling me
she’s recently divorced, a single mother.
And one evening after coming home from work having picked up her little
son from child care. And she was sitting
there at the supper table and her little son was there in the highchair. And she was looking at a bill that had come
again. She said, “I can’t pay this. I don’t know what I’m going to do.” She said, “I just broke down into tears and I
began sobbing. I laid my head on the
tray that my son had in front of him.”
He was there. He had the little
binky in his mouth. He looked at his
mother crying. She said her little son,
two-years-old, took it out of his mouth and gave it to her.
It’s the simple, little,
ordinary things around you and me that God nourishes us. Are you and I going to go back home today and
there’s going to someone standing outside your door saying, “Guess what! You’ve
just won the sweepstakes!” That would be
nice but it probably isn’t going to happen.
But last weekend I did see wonderful things happen. Do you know who won the Dinner for Two? Ya, it was a young couple just sitting right
over there this morning. They were
married within the last month. What a
beautiful wedding present. They won the
Dinner for Two. All the other people
were parishioners in this parish except for maybe one or two, that won all of
our prizes. Beautiful. Fantastic.
In the course of this week
there have been people who have been in the hospital that we’ve gone to anoint
who were dying. But in the course of
this last week, since last Sunday, my dad turned 96 and is doing fantastic. In the course this week people have come up
to me, even last Sunday, and said, “You did our wedding back in 1977. You baptized me.” And others that I did their wedding. Somebody else came up. I met the first two people who were
registered in St. Alphonsus Parish back in 1959, a John O’Malley and Duke
Anderson. They came up. People came from St. Cloud who were former
parishioners. It was fantastic. All those little things happening.
So look around you. I think that’s what the little jug of water
and the earth cake are saying in a simple way.
It may not be in the newspaper, you won’t see it on the news tonight,
but look around you when you’re kind of down and out, sitting under the broom
tree for the little signs that God is saying, “Look I’m here with you.” And a little tiny child helping his
mother. The smile of your children. A hand being held out. A smile.
A thoughtful letter that comes. A
phone call. An E-mail.
Somebody text messaged me
last night on my cell phone. Well I
don’t do text messaging. I was trying to
figure out how do I respond back. I got
the first word out, I, and I couldn’t get any further. I said, “How do I get to I know or something
like that?” So they were trying to
explain to me later one, somebody else how to do it, and I said, “Ah, I’ll just
call them up.”
Simple little things like
that. Do you get the message? I think it’s powerful, it’s beautiful. Look for the ordinary, simple things about
you.
A few years ago I found this
too: The Small Signs Around You. I’ll just read it.
When you thought I wasn’t
looking I saw you hang by first painting on the refrigerator, and I wanted to
paint another one.
When you thought I wasn’t
looking I saw you feed a stray cat, and I thought it was good to be kind to
animals.
When you thought I wasn’t
looking I saw you make my favorite cake just for me, and I knew that little
things are special things.
When you thought I wasn’t
looking I heard you say a prayer, and I believed there is a God I could always
talk to.
When you thought I wasn’t
looking I felt you kiss me goodnight and I felt loved.
When you thought I wasn’t
looking I saw tears come from your eyes and I learned that sometimes things
hurt but it’s alright to cry.
When you thought I wasn’t
looking I say that you cared and I wanted to be everything that I could be.
And when you thought I
wasn’t looking I looked, and wanted to say thanks for all the things I saw when
you thought I wasn’t looking.
Open your eyes and your
hearts to the simple little ways around you that God nourishes you through all
these little things that happen to us day in and day out, especially when
you’re under the broom tree. Very simply
this morning maybe, during the Mass think of all the people that you know are
like that. Maybe someone struggling,
someone in your own family, a fellow parishioner, but take whoever it is that
you want to pray for and put them on the altar knowing that God is going to
lift them up and I lift up the bread and the wine. Or when you come down the aisle to receive
Holy Communion, and you receive Jesus the Bread of Life, as you receive Jesus
ask Jesus to give you what you need to nourish somebody else this week. Pass on what you and I are receiving. And each day be so grateful for the gift of
life.