Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'B'

Saturday August 8, 2009

What is your hunger?

I assume you have come here this morning/this evening because you are hungry. If my assumption is correct, for what are you hungry? If my assumption is incorrect, perhaps I can awaken your taste buds.

First a little story.

Back in the sixties as graduate students in Rome we were not permitted to return to the States during the summer break because it was too expensive. On the other hand, we had many opportunities to travel inexpensively in Europe. It was my first summer abroad in 1964 and I decided spend a month with some fellow student in Spain taking a crash course in Spanish at the summer campus of the University of Madrid located in the Basque country on the northern coast of Spain in the beautiful resort town of Santander. A life of sacrifice?

Some of our group were daring enough to make the trip on a Vespa scooter via the southern coast of France for a brief respite at Nice. Because I was not so daring and due to the fact that my yearend exams were much later, I told my priest comrades that I would fly to Nice where we decided to meet at a fraternity for priests at sundown on an agreed upon date during the last week of June.

Of course I spoke very little Italian and no French (Je ne parle pas le France!). Upon arriving in Nice, I searched and searched for the Fraternite Sacerdotal but to my chagrin, it was not at the designated location and no one seemed to know if such a was even on the map! Needless to say, I was a lost soul and didn’t know where to turn.

After several hours of wandering through the streets of Nice, I finally came upon someone who had heard of a residence for retired priests not far from the center of Nice. I can’t remember now how I got there but when I arrived at dusk, the residents were at table. They welcomed me warmly and invited me to partake in a simple evening meal comprised of soup and bread.

Although my physical hunger was satisfied, I felt quite homesick and very lonely and did not have a clue about my next step or stop. After the simple meal, I followed the residents into a small chapel not far from the entrance the plain habitat. As we recited evening prayer, I heard the familiar sound of motor scooters and thought to myself, could it be the sound of Vespas from Rome? I jumped from my prayer bench and ran to the door to discover my buddies from Rome – exhausted as I was but none the worse for wear. We hugged each other like long lost friends and thanked our elderly ‘angels of mercy’ who welcomed us so warmly and provided us with food not only for the journey but for our drooping spirits. It was truly Eucharistic experience.

It’s a simple story and certainly nothing compared to the story of Elijah in the first reading who was on the run from the curse of Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, the king of Israel, who favored the worship of Baal to assure the fertility of the fields and flocks. Elijah called upon God to judge between the false Gods and the one true God and guess who won? Jezebel was furious and wanted Elijah’s head.

Elijah escaped with his head and headed for the hills. He became exhausted and depressed, so much so that he prayed for death. But instead of death, he was visited by an ‘angel of mercy’ and given food that would sustain him for the remainder of his 40 day journey to the mountain of God at Horeb. The mention of the forty days connects his journey with the manna that sustained the Israelites as Moses led them through the desert to the land of Canaan.

God became Elijah’s companion on the journey.

The Gospel takes its cue from Elijah’s experience and takes it to its theological conclusion – Jesus is the bread of life, the new manna sent from above.

And that connects with the reason for our gathering here today… to break the bread that sustains not only our bodies but sustains our souls – food for our journey through life.

As we gather, I think of all the people in the world who are starving for food and dying of hunger. Who are their ‘angels of mercy?”

I think too of the many people who have lost their way in life – they don’t know why they are hungry and don’t know where to look for food – not just physical food but spiritual food. Who will be their ‘angels of mercy?’

I think of abused children and abused women and men some of whom have taken their own lives in desperation because they could find no ‘angel of mercy.’

I think of people suffering the ravages of depression who are the border of despair searching for answers and for a horizon of hope. Who will be their ‘angels of nercy?’

I think of all the young service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan. How frightened they must be as they venture out into no-man’s land with no guarantees of a safe return. Who are their ‘angels of mercy?’ And all the innocent victims of war who are caught in the crossfire. Where are their ‘angels of mercy?’

What is our hunger? And how will it be satisfied?

What is the bread that we break at these two tables? The holy wisdom of God in the Scriptures and the body of Christ in the Eucharist.

We become the bread that we eat so that we might have our hungers satisfied so that we may become ‘angels of mercy’ to someone or to the many whose hunger knows no end.

“My only desire is to give myself completely to the action of this infinite love who is God, whodemands to transform me into himself secretly, darkly, in simplicity, in a way that has no drama about it and is infinitely beyond everything spectacular and astonishing, so is its significance and its power.”

“The fire of love for souls loved by God consumes like the fire of God’s love, and it is the same love. It burns you up with a hunger for the supernatural happiness first of the people that you know, then of people you have barely heard of, and finally of everybody.” [Thomas Merton, reprinted in Book of Hours, edited by Kathleen Deignan, Sorin Books, Notre Dame, Indiana, 2007]

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