A homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 27, 2025
Genesis 18:20-32, Colossians 2:12-14, Luke 11:1-13
Back at the peak — or was it the depths? — of the COVID pandemic, many of us took up new hobbies to pass the time while we were in lockdown.
Some of us finally read the books collecting dust on our shelves, those assigned readings we faked our way through to write term papers.
It turns out, some of them were actually interesting. Who knew?
Some of us hauled out our vinyl or cassettes or CDs and revisited the Sixties or Seventies or whatever era betrays our age and our tastes in music.
Some of us got blisters on our thumbs from too much Minecraft or Call of Duty.
And then there were the sourdough folks.
Yes, many of us realized we had the time to learn how to nurture sourdough starter, almost like our children or pets, and bake utterly amazing bread every day or at least several times a week.
Homemade sourdough, our daily bread.
And as we improved and refined our skills and made tastier and prettier loaves, we started to share them. First, as pictures on Facebook and Insta and TikTok, and then, physically, even if we had to leave them on our friends’ doorsteps, ring the doorbell and run away.
Because sharing our daily bread is a good thing to do.
Because sharing our daily bread is the right thing to do.
Because sharing our daily bread is what Christ commands us to do.
Now, those musicians from a long time ago whom I just mentioned gave us more than danceable tunes. They also tossed a whole bunch of words into our everyday slang.
Cool, the way good jazz is played.
Groovy, like LP records.
Bread, as in money.
That’s right: “Bread” means much, much more than Wonder or semolina or gluten-free.
Our bosses give us our daily bread through our paychecks.
Our customers provide us with daily bread when they purchase our goods or tip us for our services.
And beyond money or baked goods, our daily bread is anything that nourishes us. Fruits and vegetables, Jersey corn and WindMill hot dogs, pizza and bagels.
Hugs and kisses.
Even gifts might be considered daily bread if they fill a need in our lives.
And at the absolute top of the list is Christ’s gift of the Eucharist. Bestowed on us in the form of bread from Heaven. The ultimate manna.
Our daily bread nourishes us in body, mind and spirit.
Our daily bread supports our growth as people, and especially as sisters and brothers who were created by and in God’s image.
And as we grow and mature as people, as people of faith, as members of the Body of Christ, we weave our Lord’s command to share our daily bread into the fabric of our beings.
To share food, water, shelter and medicine wherever there is a need. Because there is much need in the world and in our nation, our state and our hometowns. We are sinners if we ignore the least among us.
To share our treasure wherever there is a need, like the poor woman who gave a share of everything she had, and not like the wealthy men who tossed in a little icing from their figurative cakes.
To share the Good News that sustains and nourishes us socially, psychologically and spiritually.
To share the Good News that reassures us we are part of Earth’s human family, a single human race of people that transcends ethnicity and language, geography and climate, talents and skills and intellectual gifts, and diversity of experiences.
To share the Good News of salvation, won for us by the Son of God who taught us how to pray, who taught us how to love one another as he loved us, who did not hold back anything in giving his all.
Who, with Our Father, gives us this day and every day our daily bread.
Bread, the staff of life.
Please pardon the cliché.
