DO YOU HAVE ANY BREAD?
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 19th Sunday in
Ordinary Time [B] is, “Do You Have Any
Bread?”
How many times have we been in a restaurant and we asked
the waiter or waitress, “Do you have any bread?”
Or the bread was so good, we ask, “Do you have any more bread?”
What’s your take on bread?
GIVING US THE WHOLE BIBLE - IN SLICES OR BITES
As you know the Sunday Readings are broken up for us into
3 cycles: A - B - and C. The gospels for year A are from Mathew, Year B from
Mark, this year, and Year C from Luke - next year.
My thought is that Mark is the shortest gospel, 16
chapters, so they needed something extra - so in came John for these 5 Sundays.
All this is the plan for Sundays in Ordinary Time.
And notice, like today, the first reading - usually from
the Jewish Scriptures - which we call The Old Testament is connected somehow to
the gospel.
During Advent,
Lent, the Easter Season and feasts, we
have John and different parts of different gospels. So in a given 3 year cycle
we get - pretty much the whole Bible. Weekday
readings for weekday Masses are on a 2 year cycle.
THE 6th CHAPTER OF JOHN
Okay, the 6th chapter of John….
We’re getting it for 5 straight Sundays - from John 6 -
which is a long chapter.
It’s all about bread. It’s all about the Eucharist.
Why do you come to Mass Sunday after Sunday after Sunday?
Different people down through the years have told me,
they came back to Mass, because of the Eucharist. They missed Holy Communion. They wanted the
bread.
My big suggestion
in this homily - entitled, “Do You Have Any Bread?” - is to read the 6th
Chapter of John.
Break it up - like we break up bread. Slice it up, like
we slice up bread. Share it with each other. Read it out loud as a couple or a family - as we
break bread up and share it as a family.
If you use the Eucharistic Adoration Chapel at St. Mary’s,
make sure you sit there and read the 6th chapter of John in prayer -
every couple of months.
Scripture scholars tell us that the 6th
chapter of John has been developed - it evolved - as that first century of
church went on. It has been re-written - and given new drafts. This sermon is different than the time I gave
it this morning. It needed help.
It has a wisdom level and a bread level and a community
level.
THE WISDOM OF BREAD
What do you see and sense when you see bread - rolls - in
a basket on a table - especially when it’s fresh and warm and delicious
looking.
Do you see any wisdom in bread?
Dan Berrigan - the Jesuit - priest and poet once wrote,
When I hear bread breaking,
I see something else; it seems to me
as though God never meant us to do anything else.
So beautiful a sound; the crust breaks up like manna
and falls all over everything and then we eat;
bread gets inside humans.
Jesus came as wisdom and the people listened to him as
the word of life.
Anthropologists tell us that life on the planet changed
as people started to make and bake bread.
People had to move from being hunters and gatherers to
farmers and city folk to have bread.
There is a difference between eating bread and eating berries and birds.
Meat is meat.
Bread is complicated. Making bread is a process. Baking takes time and
skills and knowing what to do.
So read Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John and hear some of
thoughts Jesus baked into his words.
Picture the story - the scene - what’s happening in John
6.
The folks are hunting for Jesus - the one who was
different. Hey we know Mary and Joseph - who is this one - and how did he get
to be who he is. Jesus is the one coming down from heaven. Jesus is the one who can help people live
forever. Jesus is the one who is teaching people about God the Father, His
Father, Our Father.
The people are murmuring against him. He tells them to
become quiet and listen - to the wisdom from his mind and life.
BREAD AS FOOD
We also need food.
Everybody - whether they know the Our Father prayer or
not, prays every day, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
The people in the 6th chapter of John are
hungry.
We need work so people can earn money to buy bread.
Money is called bread at times.
We need bakers.
One of neatest life memories I have is from a bus tour I
was on in Ireland. We were trying to get to some spot in our bus, but we
couldn’t make a turn, so the bus driver took us to a sweater and blanket place
where they had weavers. Across the street was a church and a funeral was going
on.
The sweater place didn’t grab me so I meandered around
outside - wondering about the funeral.
The tour group I was with got on the bus - and we headed down the street
in this small Irish town - just as the funeral was finished.
We headed out of town just ahead of them - as the church
funeral bells were tolling. Looking out the bus windows, we could see for about 5 streets - people lined up on both
sides looking out into the street - waiting for the funeral hearse and the cars
to come by.
We asked the obvious: Who died?
The bus driver answered with a tear and a smile: the
baker.
We need bread. We need cakes. We need cookies and
croissants. We need pies and pastry.
We need food pantries.
We need dumpsters for the starving to get food - if they
can’t get food elsewhere.
The other night on the news there was a story about a college girl who came up with a computer program and a process to get left over and about to be tossed food into the hands of food pantries.
Jesus came as bread, as food, and he fed the hungry.
BREAD AS COMMUNION
It is not good to be alone.
It is not good to eat alone.
We need community.
We need family.
We need to eat together.
We need to break bread and share wine together.
Sometimes we can’t stomach each other.
Sometimes we can’t eat with each other.
Every family knows this.
Every family knows this at Thanksgiving especially - family fractures show up at that long weekend.
The Mass is a get together - a communion - a community of
folks who want to gather at least once a week to celebrate life and our attempts
to live gospel values with each other.
JESUS KNOWS THIS
Jesus knows this.
Jesus comes as words.
Jesus comes as bread and wine - the most basic - of food.
Solid and liquid.
Bones and blood.
Flowing and standing still.
Life.
Bread gets into us.
Words get into us.
CONCLUSION
As Jesus says in today’s gospel, “I am the living bread
that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the
bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.
