A homily for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 1, 2021
Ex 16:2-4, 12-15, Eph 4:17, 20-24, Jn 6:24-35
If ever there were a time to be grateful, it’s now.
Even amid the ongoing-and-reviving pandemic, climate crises, unemployment, and civil and racial strife, we have much to be thankful for.
We are alive; we’ve lived to see another day. God’s Creation is beautiful (what we humans haven’t trashed, that is). Someone in Heaven loves us. Someone here on Earth does, too, even if we don’t know that person or persons personally.
And we are saved.
But, really, why be grateful now?
Because it’s today.
When tomorrow becomes today, and the day after that, then it also will be a time to be grateful.
To thank God.
Who is and always will be.
Who is and always will be by our sides, with one hand in the small of our backs, and with everything we need or ever will need in the palm of her other hand.
That’s what Jesus was talking about when he said
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
Jesus put the constancy of God’s love in simple, tangible terms, because his earliest followers were tactile men. They understood best what they could pick up, hold, shake a little, listen to, sniff and look at from top to bottom.
So the imagery of never missing a meal rang particularly true for fishermen and other laborers who sweated — and fretted — to earn their daily bread. Eternal divine Doordash gave them a degree of comfort and security they likely had never experienced before, especially with the Romans’ tax man shaking them down whenever it suited him or his invading masters.
As descendants of those disciples, and as disciples ourselves, we likewise can take comfort in knowing that God’s love is constant, that our souls will always be fed by the bread of life and that we have a place prepared for us by Jesus in the heavenly kingdom.
Peter, Andrew, James and John could lean over and say “Thank you, Lord” directly to the Christ sitting alongside them. In all honesty, we can, too. Do we?
Back when I was in college, a friend invited me to a lecture at a Christian Science church. Always up for a different kind of religious experience, I tagged along.
I don’t remember much about the speech from the grandmotherly minister who was laying out the core beliefs enumerated by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, except for this:
She and her grandson were taking a trip by plane somewhere — it doesn’t matter where — when her grandson looked out the window and realized how high the plane was flying. “Grandma,” he asked, “are we flying so high because of the law of gravity?” “No, dear,” she replied, “it’s because of the law of gratitude.”
In her texts, Eddy wrote extensively about gratitude, asserting in one that:
“Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more.”
Though it could be interpreted as transactional or even mercantile, this maxim actually describes a relationship based on respect.
Any parent knows that they have no inclination to give more of something to a child who didn’t show gratitude for what they already received. Who didn’t take care of the gift.
How many times do parents remind their children, “What do you say?” when they receive a gift of any sort, be it snack or pony? How many times do parents admonish their children to take care of what they have as the best way of showing appreciation for having it?
Our divine parent, who gives us everything, starting with our lives, deserves nothing less.
Our divine parent, who gives us everything, starting with our lives, continually gives us more even when we don’t appreciate the gifts we already have.
Our divine parent, who gives us everything, starting with our lives, continually gives us more — even when we don’t deserve more. Because God’s love is bigger than any of us can imagine.
In a mature, caring relationship with our fellow children of God, we know the answer to “What do you say?”
In a mature, caring relationship with our generous God, we ought to know the answer to “What do you say?”
That’s why, if ever there were a time to be grateful, it’s now.
