Food for Life

SUNDAY HOMILY: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Holy Child Parish, Meadow Heights
July 30, 2006

Once there was a priest who was sent to a country parish in Peru. After several weeks of learning Spanish he felt terribly lonely and homesick; missing his former parishioners.

He thought of getting a pet to give him company. Off he went to a nearby pet shop. Going through all the pet animals, he decided to buy a talking parrot.* “I know this one is very expensive, but I am sure this will cheer me up,” he said to himself as he excitedly brought it to his presbytery.

But several days passed and the parrot hadn’t uttered a sound. The poor priest went back to pet shop owner and complained.

“What it needs is a ladder for the cage,” the man said. “When it goes up and down, it’ll start talking. But the parrot didn’t speak a word. So the priest returned and complained.

“Ah, Father, what it needs is a swing,” the owner said. But a week went by, and still the bird didn’t talk. When the priest returned to complain for the third time, the pet shop owner said what it needed was a mirror in the cage. But again it didn’t work.

Another week passed and the priest came back to the pet shop, this time he was mourning. He reported that his expensive parrot had died. The owner was embarrassed. “I’m sorry to hear that Father, but did it say anything at all?”

“Yes,” said the poor priest. “As my parrot drew its last breaths, finally it spoke. It said: “Father, don’t they have bird food in the pet shop?”

The priest and pet shop owner were so preoccupied with the bird’s various needs that they forgot the one most basic need – food!

***

The readings we have today this Sunday speaks of hunger for food, and how God is concerned with this hunger. Food is one of the basic needs for everything living things in order to survive - plants, animals, and human beings need food!

We need regular nourishment to keep us going with our daily activities. People go for work so they can earn money, and afford to provide descent meal for his or her family. Because food sustains life, without food we will get hungry, deteriorate and eventually suffer the grim fate of the talking parrot in the story.

In the first reading, prophet Elisha attends to the hungry crowd with barley loaves and fresh grain. With the help of God he performed a miracle so that was able to feed hundreds of people. This story finds a parallel in the Gospel reading today – Jesus fed food to 5,000 men! Imagine if we include their wives and children, there were at least ten or twenty thousand people. But Jesus managed to provide them an abundant meal – more that they could possibly eat. The Gospel says the disciples gathered twelve baskets of scraps left over from the barley bread.

You may be wondering where these crowds came from and why they were following Jesus? At that time Jesus had already attracted many people because of his teachings, sign and miracles. Jesus was like celebrity – people were following him wherever he goes. Probably many were attracted only out of curiosity wanting to find more about this person.

That day a great crowd had gathered around Jesus. Instead of giving them long discourses or sermons Jesus felt immediately their needs – these people were tired, exhausted and hungry. For that moment Jesus’ priority was to attend their hunger. Indeed one cannot preach the Word of God to people with empty stomachs! So he asked Philip, “Where can we buy food for these people to eat?” To cut the story short the crowd got a good feed – for free! They were all satisfied and for sure they gained weight as well!

****

I don’t think lack food is a problem in a rich country like Australia. Some people in rich countries are more concern about whether it is healthier to be a vegetarian or not. Whereas in poor countries, people don’t have a luxury of choosing between beef and vegetables; millions of people are dying from hunger,

Food is very important, but still, food is not the only thing that matters. Even if we eat three times a day, still we experience interior or spiritual hunger that only God can satisfy.

The Gospel reading today, is not much about the miracle of multiplication of the bread, but it is a story where Jesus leads his followers to recognise the Bread that does not perish. Jesus is preparing the people for the greatest miracle, when he will offer himself as the giver of life at the Last Supper. We will hear about this theme the next coming Sundays. If you go to Mass next Sunday, (I’m sure you will) you hear Jesus speaking about bread becoming his very Flesh, and wine as his very Blood. Jesus is the Bread of Life from Heaven that nourishes people’s spiritual hunger.

In fact, this is what we are going to receive today in the Holy Communion. In the every Eucharistic celebration, Jesus offers himself as the Bread of Life, to nourish our spiritual hunger and needs. More than this Jesus promises eternal life to whoever receives this food: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life everlasting and I shall raise him up on the last day.”

So as we receive Jesus later on in the Holy Communion let us express our thanks and praise to God for this great opportunity, which not everyone has, or some people take for granted. After we receive Holy Communion let us allow God to fill up our interior longing, and spiritual hunger that material things cannot fulfill. Finally, let us pray that through this Eucharist each one of us will come closer to Jesus – the Bread of Life – so that we may not experience hunger but gain EVERLASTING LIFE.

* Adapted from the story of Fr. Ben San Luis SVD