SHARE IT,

DON’T HOARD IT

TITLE

The title of my homily for this 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B - is, "Share It, Don't Hoard It."

THEME

My theme is: When sharing takes place, miracles happen.

OPENING STORY

A bus with about 50 people was making its way towards the gambling casinos in Nevada, when it ran into a surprise snowstorm. In fact, the snow storm ended up being one of the worst in years.

The bus driver moved along cautiously. Then, because it was almost evening and the snow didn’t look like it was going to stop, he told everyone that he was heading for a motel. He figured there would be a rush on motel rooms, so he better get to one fast. He left the main highway and headed for where he thought there was a motel. It was a mistake. He took the wrong road. It was understandable, because the road signs were covered with snow and the visibility was poor. He ended up on a back country road. The more he moved forward, the more he was lost. A short time later he came to a dead halt—the bus stuck in deep snow. No cars, no houses, no lights, nothing was in sight but snow. And to make matters worse cell phones were out of cell phone areas - caught in between too many mountain passes.

He stood up and said, “Sorry folks, I think we’re stuck here for the night. My advice is that we all relax and stay put. In the morning it should be easier for rescue people to catch sight of a bus than to spot an individual person. We still have enough gas, so I’ll heat up the bus on a regular basis throughout the night.

A few people asked questions, but most people became silent. They were mostly strangers on their way to the casinos. They sat there thinking or talking to the person next to them—nervous about what was going to happen.

About a half hour later the bus driver asked, “By the way, does anyone have any food?”

Once more there was silence.

Finally, a young boy, was sitting in the first row stood up and said, “I have sandwiches in my bag here and plenty of munchies. If anyone wants anything, just help yourself. I’ll pass the bag back.” His mom, who was sitting next to him, was surprised at what he had done. He wasn’t even supposed to be on the trip, but her sister, who was going to watch him while she went to the gambling casinos, had an emergency and couldn’t watch him. So his mom took him along for the trip.

Almost everyone on the bus had food, but nobody but the boy admitted it. Everyone figured, “You never know how long we’re going to be stuck out here on this back road in this storm. Hang onto what you have!” Well, as the bag moved slowly from seat to seat, from person to person, towards the back of the bus, a strange thing happened. People felt guilty at not speaking up, so they would reach in and take a pretzel or a potato chip or a cookie and then put some of their food into the boy’s bag. Well, by the time the boy got his bag back, it had a lot more food than when it had started its journey from the front of the bus to the back.

A miracle? No.

A miracle? Yes.

Sharing, giving, opens up more than hands. It can also open up eyes and minds and hearts.

Thank God, the storm ended during the night. The next day a helicopter spotted the bus and snow plows eventually were able to reach it. Nobody starved to death. Nobody was worse for the experience. In fact, the experience brought these strangers together. Moreover, they learned to laugh at themselves as they discovered, while talking and sharing food, that they had a lot more food on the bus than first admitted.

HOMILETIC REFLECTIONS

The story of the bus is like the two stories we heard in today’s first and third readings. People needed food. Someone had a little bit, but not enough to feed everyone. They go to a holy person and ask what to do. He says to give out what they have. And surprise, they discover that they have more than they need.

For reflection, I would like to make two points about today’s two readings:

         1) Unity is a very important gospel value. 

2) The sharing of food is the first and most basic  way of bringing about unity among people.

First: unity. In today’s second reading Paul pleads with all of us to work for unity. He tells us that there is “but one body and one Spirit, just as there is but one hope given all of you by your call. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all, and works through all and is in all.” So whether we are a parish or a group of people on a bus, whether we are a nation or a people on a planet, we are all one body.

Now, the obvious reaction on hearing Paul’s plea for unity is to say, “Okay, Paul, unity is great, but how are we going to achieve it?” 

Paul’s answer would be, “Read my letters. I spell it all out in very concrete ways. In fact, didn’t you hear the 4 ways, amongst others, that I mentioned in today’s reading: 1) Be humble, 2) be meek, 3) be patient, and 4) bear with one another lovingly? Make that effort and you’ll begin to see some unity in your life and with the people you deal with every day.

Second: share your food. Or as we learned from the boy on the bus: Share it, don’t hoard it. Share it, don’t hide it. 

Today’s gospel and first reading are even more basic than St. Paul’s suggestions on how to bring about unity. If we want unity on the bus or on the planet, let’s make sure everyone has enough to eat. If we are a body, then that body needs food. It’s as simple and as basic as that. It’s the Golden Rule. Don’t we like three meals a day and even more? Don’t we all love to eat?

And if we read the Gospels, we find out that the most common thing that Jesus does is to eat. He knew that food is basic to life. He knew that food brings people together and he knew that when people get together they eat. 

Today’s gospel story of the multiplication of the loaves is the only miracle story in the public ministry of Jesus that is found in all four Gospels. In fact, the story appears six times. Jesus is always eating or feeding people. He goes to Cana and a married couple have more wine for their wedding. He brought a little girl back to life and the first thing he tells her parents is to give her something to eat. He tells the story of the Prodigal Son and ends the story with a great feast. Jesus  is accused of being a glutton and a drunkard. The night before he dies he has a Last Supper with his disciples. And when he appears to his disciples as the Risen Lord he breaks bread at Emmaus and eats fish at Galilee.

So, today’s gospel and first reading are about eating. They also have hints of the Passover. Elisha and Jesus are like Moses. They make sure people have their manna, their food, as they cross the desert of life, going towards the Promised Land.

And it should be pointed out that today’s gospel is from John. We have been using the Gospel of Mark most of this year in Ordinary Time. It’s the B Cycle. Last Sunday’s gospel told of the scene in Mark when Jesus and his disciples were surrounded with a vast crowd of people who were hungry and “were like sheep without a shepherd.” This Sunday and for the next 4 Sundays we will be hearing about this same group of hungry people from the famous sixth chapter of John. And John the poet will try to stretch us by asking us to look at what we are hungering for in this life? Yes, we need bread. But do we hunger for more? And if we have enough bread, what is that more that we are after? Is it God? Is it what perishes or what can last forever?

Food unites people - but only when it is shared. Food can also divide people - especially when people are scared - scared that there might not be enough of it.

And what we say about food, we can also say about all the other goods and gifts that God has given to this world. Those goods and gifts can unite us - but only when they are shared. If we look at what divides us, what causes unrest and wars, isn’t it when people are selfish? Haven’t our wars basically been about land and material resources and the goods of this world?

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

The obvious practical application for today’s readings then is that we share our food, our talents, our resources, our time and ourselves with our neighbor. When we don’t, we are doing our small part to keep our world separated.

What the little boy in the gospel and what the little boy in the bus did, we are called to do. That is our vocation, our calling: to share.

In fact, food is where we must start. 

The way to a person’s heart is through his or her stomach. 

Before we talk about anything else, our world must unite to make sure everyone on this bus, this planet, had enough to eat. 

Jesus knew this. Do we? 

Few of us here probably have ever really felt the pain of real hunger and starvation. 

But haven’t we all had the basic experience of being stopped by someone when we had to go to the bathroom? They talked and talked and we didn’t hear a word they said. Well, there is a step before the bathroom: if someone has an empty stomach, it’s no use talking to them about religion or politics.

Didn’t Abraham Maslow in his famous hierarchy of basic needs tell us the same thing? He said that food, housing, a job, security come before religion and everything else? 

Major Barbara, in George Bernard Shaw’s play by the name, is described as being deeply worried about where she is going to get money for the poor, “How are we going to feed them? I can’t talk religion to a man with bodily hunger in his eyes.” 

Didn’t Nehru, the former prime minister of India, say the same thing, “I want nothing to do with any religion concerned with keeping the masses satisfied to live in hunger, filth, and ignorance. I  want nothing to do with any order, religious or otherwise, which does not teach people that they are capable of becoming happier and more civilized on this earth, capable of becoming truly human, master of their fate and captain of their soul.”

Our religion, our Judeo-Christian tradition, teaches us exactly that: from the Old Testament to the New, from the Letters of our Popes to the Bishop’s Pastoral Letter on the Economy.

Isaiah told us to “share your bread with the hungry, to shelter the oppressed and the homeless, to clothe the naked when you see them and not to turn your back on your own.” (Is. 58: 7) 

And all through the gospels Jesus repeated that same message, but especially in Matthew 25 where he tells us to feed the hungry and give a drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked and to welcome the stranger, to take care of the sick and visit those in prison. 

Then in today’s gospel we see that Jesus was not all words. The crowd was hungry and he fed them. 

And it wasn’t Karl Marx who said, “The bread that you store up belongs to the hungry; the cloak that lies in your chest belongs to the naked; the gold that you have hidden in the ground belongs to the poor.” No, it was St. Basil.

The boy in the gospel and the boy on the bus tell us loud and clear, “Share it, don’t hoard it!” “Share it, don’t hide it!”

Or as St. Paul put it, “We are one body. If the hand forgets the foot, or the eye neglects the ear, then the whole body is in trouble.” If we hoard our food or our gifts, we will never have a united world or a united bus.

Share it, don’t hide it!