"Here y' go, mate. Have a bit of mine."

 



Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time A
July 31, 2011

Reading I: Isaiah 55:1-3
Responsorial Psalm: 145:8-9, 15-16, 17-18
Reading II: Romans 8:35, 37-39
Gospel: Matthew 14:13-21



For some days each week I keep the gospel passage in my thoughts until I see something that I could write about. This week, it doesn't work that way. The mind is always being drawn back to Oslo and Utoya Island. I join the people in their sorrow and hope as half the population of that city come out to fill the streets  -  in silence. I cannot continue to make small talk about a passage of the gospel. Then comes Eureka Street's second article, “Silence for Norway's Dead”  by Bronwyn Lay . (LINK)   If I were leading a community celebration of eucharist this weekend I would like to focus on the second reading...

and perhaps read “Silence for Norway's Dead” quietly...

and let the rest be silence.


In case we miss the irony in the second reading, let's be clear: Paul is saying that nothing can stop God's love touching us...


...anguish...persecution...war...bombs...guns...cold, ruthless killers...
mayhem and madness...abuse...

none of those things that make us feel
neglected... unwanted... unclean... unworthy... unloved...


What will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?
No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly
through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities,
nor present things, nor future things,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans:35,37-39


"I am convinced...," he says.
 
What does it take to keep faith alive?
Compassion is a good start,
and truthful acknowledgement of the evil that makes its home in me..., and you...


That God provides a banquet to which all are invited free is a very attractive idea, even a thread of hope amid the mayhem and the murder. If we dare to celebrate this hope today we can hardly do so without the words of Jesus leading us forward to communion:  “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.”  There will be no solution that does not begin with us. That is why we come together to celebrate our communion: an act of solidarity with those who have no water, who have no money, who are dying without hope.