Homily For the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time of the Year B, July 28, 2024
“Do not worry about numbers, help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.”– St. Teresa
Sunday Readings
My Dearest Friends in Christ,
Thanks to God’s generous Love, we are privileged to be alive today. May the Word of God inspire you to live a generous life.
Today’s readings address one of the most challenging problems in human society: seeing our difficulties instead of opportunities to share our little with others. Jesus through His example is inviting us to overcome the limitations of our mindset and be open-handed and generous to people in need; especially at this time when many are suffering, and living below the poverty level occasioned by global inflation. We are called to be, at this critical time, instruments in God’s hand by sharing our blessings with the poor and needy around us. Once physical hunger is satisfied, then we are challenged to satisfy the deeper hunger for love, mercy, forgiveness, companionship, peace, and fulfillment.
St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) related a story showing how the poor are more generous than the rich because the poor have experienced hunger and poverty. Learning of a poor Hindu family in Calcutta who had been starving for many days, Mother Teresa visited them and brought a big parcel of rice to the mother. She was surprised to see how the mother divided the rice into two equal portions and went out with one bundle to give it to her Muslim neighbor. When she returned, Mother Teresa asked her why she had done such a generous deed. The woman replied: “My family can manage with half the rice in this bag. My neighbor’s family has several children and they are also starving.” This story is a demonstration of a pure act of generosity. “No one is too poor that they have nothing to give.” says mother Teresa.
The greatest problem we need to overcome is a false belief in not having enough and the fear of running out of resources if we were to share even a little. Fulton J. Sheen once admonished: “Never measure your generosity by what you give, but rather by what you have left.”
From the first reading and the Gospel, we saw the human attitude and perception in the face of helping others: Elisha’s servant objected, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” We saw the same attitude in the Gospel when Philip answered Christ, “Two hundred days wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.” Both Philip and Elisha’s servants were so intimidated by the numbers, that they failed to see any opportunity to do something. St Teresa of Calcutta once said: “Do not worry about numbers, help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.”
We often think that the little we have will not be enough to share with others, but we fail to remember that the little we give out with a generous heart can go a long way in helping someone. I always encourage my friends to not worry about solving the whole problem if they cannot afford it, but to render the little help they can and never to ignore to help. Jesus asked Philip when He saw the large crowd coming to Him, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” He said this to test him because He knew what He was going to do. Jesus asked the question because He wanted Philip and others to be involved in feeding the crowd. God wants us all to be involved in feeding the hungry and in helping others. We become agents of God’s miraculous intervention when we offer the little we have. We saw this in the First Reading with Elisha who fed a hundred people with two loaves of bread and with Jesus in the Gospel who fed 5000 with just five loaves of bread and two fishes. God multiplies the little gifts we bring to Him with Love. Please keep helping. Many are in dire need of help.
In the Second Reading, St. Paul reminds the Ephesians, and us, that Jesus united the Jews and the Gentiles, bringing them together as Christians in “…one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all.” Hence, He urges them to keep this unity intact as “…one body and one Spirit by living as true Christians, bearing with one another through love, in humility and gentleness, with patience, striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” If we become such a community nobody will go hungry, and God will meet the needs of people through the services provided by members of our community.
Let us take this admonition of Christ to heart: “Gather the fragments left over so that nothing will be wasted.” Wasting food or resources is a sin against charity. God does not want us to waste but to share and preserve what He has given. Do you know that as much as 40% of food goes uneaten in the U.S., according to estimates from the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency? In 2021, Americans wasted approximately $240 billion of food, which increased to $285 billion in 2022, and surged to $408 billion in 2023! Many are hungry on the streets, but grocery shops and many of us throw out expired food items that could have been donated when they were still fresh. May God forgive us and give us the grace to be concerned about those in need and avoid waste.
Let us be part of God’s work in sharing thereby communicating His love and compassion to those in need. God always blesses those who share their blessings and talents with loving commitment. Charity begins at home. Don’t neglect your own family and people to be generous to outsiders. Be generous at home, and abroad. By being generous we can satisfy the deepest hunger for love, and forgiveness. Be an instrument in God’s Hand by always being compassionate to those in need. Neither Elisha nor Jesus waited for the people to come and beg for food, they were simply sensitive to their needs. That is what being a good person or a good leader entails. An indifferent person cannot be a good person. Let us be more sensitive and avoid exploiting those in need. “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”–Winston Churchill
Remain blessed as you share with others. Don’t complain. You can never become poor in helping others and you can never outdo God in generosity. Remember these words of Elisha, “For thus says the LORD, they shall eat and there shall be some leftover.” May you experience this Divine promise in your life.
Jesus gave us Himself as food, let us in return spend our lives for the good of others especially the poor and the needy
I keep you and your family always in my prayers. ©Clem C. Aladi (2024)
