20th Sunday in
Ordinary Time
We know that the message of
Jesus in the gospel is that He’s given us the bread that lives forever. It isn’t human flesh in that sense, but it is
the risen Lord who’s Body and Blood we share this morning. Over the last several weeks we’ve had these
same readings from the gospel of John so I’m pretty sure we know what Jesus is
trying to tell us.
So what I’d like to do this
morning is take a couple of thoughts actually from the second reading from St.
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and reflect on that. He says, “Brothers and sisters watch
carefully how you live. Not as foolish
persons but as wise making the most of the opportunity because the days are
evil.”
Well we all know that there’s
evil out there, right? Read the paper,
look on the internet, turn on the news, evil, pain, hardship, frustration all
around us. And so we know that there’s
plenty of evil that exists in our world today and in our own lives and
families. So what is Paul saying? Making the most of the opportunity. What opportunities? The opportunities for you and me somehow to
take away from the evil that is present around us. How?
By doing good. So every time that
you and I do an act of kindness, we do something good, merciful, compassionate,
forgiving, understanding, we’re subtracting from the evil that is around
us.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta,
when asked, you know, all the things that you're trying to do to relieve the
suffering of the people in Calcutta. You
know, how do you make a small dent? And
she replied this way, “I do not thing the way you think, I do not add up, I
only subtract from the total dying.”
That was her approach. Because we
can get frustrated and we say, “I’m not doing enough. How am I going to make a dent in all the
pain, the hardship that’s going on in our world?” But if we approach it perhaps from a
different attitude, what I am doing takes away from the evil. Evil will not overcome, it cannot overcome
because you and I have the power of the Lord within us.
There’s a very simple little
story. It’s about an Indian, Native
American Indian story and it goes this way.
A 12-year-old little boy had died of a snakebite. The poison took away his life and his mom and
his dad and the holy man were all gathered around his body and they were
grieving. And they sat there around this
little boy’s body for some time. Finally
at one point the father rose, stood over his child, stretched out his hands
over the feet of his little boy and said, “In all my life I have not worked for
my family as I should have.” And the
poison left the feet of the child. And
then the mother rose. And she came over
her little boy and she stretched her hands over his heart. And she said this, “In all my life I have not
loved my family as I should.” And the
poison left the heart of the child. And
then the holy man rose, went and stood over the little boy and placed his hands
over the head of the child. He said
this, “In all my life I have not believed the words I have spoken.” And the poison left the head of the
child. And the story goes the child rose
up and the parents and the holy rose up and the village rejoiced. A little poison at a time was subtracted, and
when we subtract from evil and we add it up on the other side it brought
life.
So it’s something perhaps as
simple and as ordinary as that. In yours
and my journey today we will have plenty of opportunities to do something that
seems very insignificant, very little, that nobody may take notice of, that
nobody is going to give us accolades for, and yet when we do that we are taking
away some evil, we’re putting a little more good in the world.
And again there’s another
beautiful little story that illustrates this.
A dear woman, a friend of mine has recently been divorced. She has a 2-year-old little son. And after this terrible separation that she’s
gone through, here she is trying to work, trying to provide for her child. She’s tired, she’s sick, she’s lonely. That particular night she has the little
2-year-old sitting in his little highchair for dinner. She’s going through the mail of this day and
again here are the bills piling up. And
she just looks at all of them and says, “How am I ever going to get through
this?” She’s tired, she frustrated,
she’s lonely, she’s hurt, she’s at her bottom.
And she just lays her head one the table of where her little boy is
sitting and begins to sob and to cry.
All of a sudden her little 2-year-old boy took the pacifier out of his
mouth and said, “Here mommy.”
The little 2-year-old boy
knows how to do something good, to lessen the evil, the pain of his mother and
I think you and I can do the same. It
might be something as simple as that.
What is the last line of St.
Paul’s reading, “Give thanks always and for everything.” When you and I go forth from this Eucharist
today and as you celebrate this Eucharist we are reminded that all life,
everything is a gift. Our prayer must
always be one of gratitude for the precious gift of life, for the gift of
faith, for the gift of every person around us.
When we start from that perspective then you and I know that we have the
ability within us to put more goodness into this world in simple little ways
and subtract from the evil.
Go forth and see how much good
you can put into the world by taking away a little of the evil.