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Bishop Skylstad's Homily, July 27, 2003
Bishop William Skylstad
Homily for the 17th Sunday of the Year
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Bishop William Skylstad
WWME Convention July 27, 2003
DeKalb, Illinois
Some of the most memorable events of my ministry over the years
have been visits to places where people have been physically poor
and yet demonstrate great faith and joy in their lives. A little
over ten years ago, I had the opportunity to visit our diocesan
mission in Guatemala in a very remote area called Tsamyup. My visit
there was on the occasion when children in the area could go to
school for the first time. There were some 80 children who attended
class in very basic, actually bare classrooms. As I took a picture
of the group, a picture which hangs in my office at home, I noticed
some of the children had an orange tinge to their hair which normally
was very dark. I was told that was the condition of severe malnutrition.
The children were delightful, eager for affection, recognition,
and an opportunity to have their picture taken.
Physical hunger is one thing. Unfortunately, we have a lot of
it in our world There is also another condition of which we must
be aware –the hunger of the human heart, the hunger of the
soul. A common phrase we hear today is that there is a hunger for
spirituality, not necessarily for community or Church. Very often
it is a hunger for relationship, for recognition. Facelifts and
breast implants are signs of a hunger for recognition. But do they
satisfy the soul, the heart?
Today the readings from Ezekiel and the Gospel of St. John focus
on physical hunger. Of course, there are much deeper implications
of looking to the heart and what truly satisfies and nourishes.
In the prophet Ezekiel, the man from Baal Shalishal has twenty barley
loaves. He brings them to Elisha who feeds the crowd. In a similar
vein in the Gospel of St. John, the crowd is enormous. Jesus uses
the five barley loaves and two fish to feed the crowd. Their hunger
is more than satisfied. Interesting I think something else happened.
Somebody loved them enough to feed their hungry bodies, and in doing
so, their hearts were nourished as well.
In both stories there are objections by the bystanders, “What
can so little do with so many?” The command was to feed. Amazingly
in both instances, there was food left over. A lavish and most generous
God loves people into fuller life with abundance unimaginable. Our
God is like that as we so well know.
We have gathered here for our national convention. Why did we
come? I suggest we came because there was a hunger in our hearts
that we felt could be filled by our experience with one another.
And now, we celebrate Eucharist, the amazing gift of the sacrament
that touches our lives profoundly. This is the sacrament that in
a special manner nourishes our spiritual hunger not only with the
Body of Christ so real under the appearance of bread and wine but
also in the body we se in one another.
In 1976, I was at our national convention in Philadelphia. Some
of you were there. That was also the year of the International Eucharistic
congress which gave us the Eucharistic hymn we know so well: Gift
of Finest Wheat. The refrain of this hymn shares the powerful message:
“You satisfy the hungry heart…” As we gather today
at the conclusion of our time together, we are mindful that Eucharist
means thanksgiving, the marvelous gift for which we are most grateful
and also the marvelous gift which calls us together into the Body
of Christ. This sacrament speaks to the message of a God who is
magnificently generous with always lots left over. Like the hesitation
of the folks both in the reading in Ezekiel and in the Gospel scene
from John, we too can get caught in our own hesitation and lack
of vision of what a good and gracious God can do beyond our wildest
dreams.
For us, that’s what it means to keep the dream alive, to
have the vision, to offer generously what little we have like the
little boy with the five loaves and two fish and the man from Baal
Shalishal in Ezekiel with his twenty barley loaves. Remember the
story of Jesus who tells the apostle to throw their net on the other
side of the boat. “Launch out into the deep water.”
They made an amazing catch, a tremendous catch of abundance. It’s
the Lord who grants the increase, who makes things happen. May you
and I never get trapped into thinking that we have too little to
offer. May we never have a failure of imagination. We trust that
God will grant the increase.
Not too long ago, the comic strip character, Hagar the Horrible,
is speaking eloquently to his friends about marriage. He tells them:
”Marriage takes hard work, commitment, dedication…”
Helga, his wife is standing nearby. She sternly reminds him: “Hagar,
why don’t you talk about something you know about?”
The great mystery of Eucharist touches our lives. The great sacrament
of marriage continues to unfold in mystery and new discovery. Marriage
also satisfies the hunger of the heart. As Helga forcefully reminded
Hagar, the challenge isn’t that easy. Jesus sharing His body
and blood cost him tremendously, but what greater sign of love could
there be? The mystery unfolds for us in priesthood. And we are nourished
and fed.
In the recent encyclical, The Eucharist of the Church, our Holy
Father reminds us that Eucharist builds community. We also know
that as we partake of the bread of life, we are also called to share
the presence of Jesus with the world. In the Letter of St. Paul
to the Ephesians today, Paul reminds us of the qualities of relationships
in our lives. “Live a life worthy of your calling….”
You are called to be married. Some of us are called to be priests.
Paul speaks of humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with on another,
striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of
peace. These are qualities to be lived. In doing so, we also share.
These are qualities that feed a hungry heart, that build up couple
relationships, that nourish a community of faith.
Jesus at the Last Supper in the Gospel of John after he has taken
the bread and wine and blessed them washes the apostles’ feet.
The message is clear. As our hungry hearts are nourished by Eucharist,
we are also to go out to the world to serve. Jesus’ words
of “As I have done, so you must do” call us to be servants,
to use our gifts in service to one another. Worldwide Marriage Encounter
has done this in a remarkable way as you have literally reached
out to the world. Too often people in the world get trapped in feasting
on “quick bread”, “bread” that does not
satisfy, “bread” that does not nourish. We do know of
the bread of life that truly satisfies, and we do know the kind
of search that must go on to genuinely satisfy the hungry heart.
The remarkable good news of Jesus’ kingdom and all that it
implies can and is lived out in our married lives and in our ordained
priesthood.
Unexpectedly a year or so ago in visiting one of our parishes
for the weekend, the pastor after the last Mass on Saturday evening
invited me to go to a drive-in movie. The title of the film was
“The Ice Age”. It’s an animated character movie
with the big mammoth, “Manny” and the little sloth fellow
by the name of “Sig.” They are friends. In one scene
they decide that they would rescue this unsavory saber tooth tiger
character by the name of “Diego.” They rescue him form
a very difficult situation. Diego is amazed. Why would they do this
for him? And Manny’s marvelous answer: “That’s
what the herd does for you.” That’s what relationships
do for us. That’s what the Body of Christ does for us. That’s
what we do for one another as we have gathered here these days together.
Indeed, we are fed in our hunger, nourished in the malnourishment
of fear and brokenness, and emboldened in our imagination and vision
to continue the mission of sharing the presence of Jesus with the
world. In our sacraments, we launch into the deep in dream and vision.
We bring our symbolic barley loaves and dried fish to our sacrament.
How could we be so fortunate? We are so only through a good and
gracious God who never fails us, who feeds our hearts, who asks
of us to go forth into the world to remind everyone that no matter
what form the hungry heart takes, the Lord satisfies and raises
us up. We are most blessed
Again and again we gather around the table of sacrifice and banquet
to celebrate the marvelous gift of Eucharist and the loving sacrifice
to which we all are called to share with one another and the world.
God will certainly take the little we have to offer ad give it back
in abundance. May God’s love and peace be with all of you.
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