Homily for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Several years ago, I watched part of a documentary that followed the family of an older woman who lived in Appalachia in the South. The film crew gave glimpses and insights as they followed the family for a year. The woman had several children, most of whom still lived in the poverty in which they were brought up. They were now raising their children as they were raised.

The film beautifully showcased the family's resilience, their shared lives, their occasional disagreements, and the various challenges each member was facing. The underlying theme of the documentary was the universal dream of 'escaping' to a better life or finding work. Many tried, but they always returned.

As one of the family members, an eighteen-year-old grandson was mulling over the possibility of moving away and finding work, many in the family were trying to dissuade him from leaving. The grandmother was more philosophical in her response. The cameras were on her as she was placing a huge plate of cinnamon rolls on the table and she said that anybody could leave if they wanted to and if they wanted to come back, that was fine, too, there was always plenty of food on the table.

I noticed this throughout the film: despite their intense poverty, the family always had food on the table, and it was there because together, they used the land and the gifts God gave them to produce the food.

In our Gospel reading today, we hear the famous story of how Jesus fed a huge crowd of people with barely enough food to feed one person. The miracle Jesus performed spoke to a reality more profound than filling our bellies. It speaks to the power of God in our lives and the fact that God can truly take care of all of our physical and spiritual needs.

In the documentary, the family members received something else—the love and support of family and friends, which was most often evident when they were at the table. While they fought, argued, and disagreed, there was evident a strong bond that could be called nothing other than love.

And love is what God really wants to bring us. It is what God wants us to offer one another. Through our offering of love to one another, we feed people's souls just as Jesus fed the hungry masses. We take our meager talents and offerings and, with the love and power of God, we can transform the world; we can be instruments of God satisfying the spiritual hunger of the people of God.

And that's what we are doing here in this Church today, gathered at this Table to share in the One Bread, the Body of Jesus our Savior. We nourish ourselves with a tiny piece of bread. But it is not bread that we take. It is our Salvation. It is the food of everlasting life. And the meal doesn't end at this table. We are called to go out and be the Body of Christ for those who do not believe, those who feel alienated, and those who have lost hope. We are called to go out and to let others know that there is always plenty of food at this Table when we gather together in prayer and in service of God and one another.

As Christians, we're not simply called to show up and eat every Sunday; we're also called to bring others to the Table of the Lord, to share in this meal, and to share in God's love.