The Feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord Feed them yourselves. How often when we are called to care for someone do we feel completely inadequate to the task? Anyone who has walked with a screaming baby in the middle of the night knows their incompetence. The words we offer the bereaved seem so weak in the face of their tragedy. Even in small events we often think we do not have the right qualities for the situation. Yet, like the apostles in this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus still calls us to care. How could they feed thousands with a small boy’s picnic meal? They couldn’t but somehow we sense that when Jesus persisted in his command by giving the apostles directions about seating the people, the apostles were prepared to do the little that they could do. The little that they could do – the little that we can do. We cannot solve the world’s food problems, or the AIDS crisis, the pain in another’s heart or even many of the tensions in our families, or within our own selves but Jesus always offers us a little that we can do. Our temptation is to ignore this ‘little’ thing because it seems even more inadequate to the situation than we are. But it is offered to us by Jesus. Jesus can take the bread and fish and feed thousands. He can take bread and wine and feed us with his Body and Blood. He can take the small deeds and words of our daily lives and transform them into places of divine grace and love. Our trust is not to be in our competency but rather in the power of God’s love to work in and through our lives.
Sr Kym Harris OSB |