Bound in Love

In today’s readings, we have two similar stories of miraculous feeding. And the Psalm refrain today is, “the hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.” The Psalm and St. Paul both speak about hope, and all of this speaks to how we might try to live our lives as Christian disciples.

We are a people of hope. Hope is one of the theological virtues, which are gifts given to us through the Holy Spirit. Unlike the natural virtues, we cannot through our own natural human powers develop theological virtues like hope. They are gifts from God. And the gift of hope is the sure confidence that not only is God real but that he has prepared a beautiful home for those who love him. Hope is confidence that no matter how difficult the journey might be, the destination is sure, and it is glorious, and it is everything that we could truly desire. Thus, on one level, the Psalmist is speaking of heaven when he says, “the eyes of all look hopefully to you, O Lord.” Heaven is our hope.

Hope has another practical meaning. It’s not purely theological. Hope is the realistic expectation that we are going to make it through the day we have been given. On a practical level, tomorrow is our hope. And it is this practical level the Psalmist refers to when he continues that same verse with, “and you give them their food in due season.”

Our God is the God of Heaven and Earth. He looks out for our eternal salvation so that we can return to him and be with him forever in heaven. He also looks out for our natural continuation, lovingly taking care of our everyday needs like food, clothing, and shelter. As the Psalm refrain put it, “the hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.” The Lord provides the bread of heaven in the Mass, and the Lord provides the wheat bread that we need to eat in our sandwiches for lunch. He answers all our needs.

The two stories about the miraculous feeding of large crowds point out the challenge for Christian disciples today. It is the same challenge that the prophet Elisha heard from his servant, and it is the same challenge that Jesus heard from Philip near the Sea of Galilee. God often hears the same challenge from us today.

The challenge God hears is some kind of lack of faith in God’s ability to provide for our food in due season. And this lack of faith is usually tied to some temporary loss of hope. We get so focused on the daily and practical issues of food, clothing, and shelter, that we lose sight of God’s providence. We sort of lose faith in the verse from today’s Psalm that says, “the Lord is just in all his ways and holy in all his works.”

As Christian disciples, our hope in heaven is the basis for our hope in the next meal and a roof over our heads tonight. God gives us not only eternal salvation but every other good thing that we need for our earthly lives. He does not mind that we take notice of the earthly stuff first; he just wants us to frame those earthly needs in his heavenly context. He will give us our food in due season. But he knows better than we do how much food we really need, and he knows the seasons of our lives better than we do. Sometimes it is good to be hungry. It never feels good to be hungry, but sometimes it is how we return to better health or a better mindset.

The challenge of living in the world today while living for the life of eternity with God is in many ways as hard as it has ever been. We are today as a society materially blessed like no other time in history. God has given us many gifts, especially in the West, but those gifts can be used in such a way that they actually pull us away from God. The incredible wealth of the United States and other developed nations by itself can pull us away from God. We call them possessions, like cell phones and TVs and retirement accounts, but they can easily come to possess us. We don’t realize how much time we have spent flicking our thumbs on these little screens in our hands, and our minds have drifted away from the one who satisfies the desire of every living thing. We look at our retirement accounts as guarantees for a future, but our real future has no end because our retirement account ultimately is the bosom of Abraham.

On a daily basis, therefore, we find ourselves like Elisha’s servant or Jesus’s disciples, trying to fit earthly concerns into a heavenly picture frame. God does not want us to go hungry, but He knows that the Bread of Life is more important than the ethically-sourced bread we buy at the grocery store. God gives us the poor and the hungry so that we who have enough might serve those who do not. God gives us ministries like the St. Vincent de Paul parish ministry so that we can be his hands to give them their food in due season and also raise our eyes to look hopefully upon Him. Like Elisha’s servant and Jesus’s disciples, we can grow in faith and hope when we put ourselves in places to participate in God’s generosity.

This may be what St. Paul is speaking to in his letter to the Ephesians when he says, “I urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received.” In our baptism we received the call of holiness. Holiness is our vocation. Holiness is marked by the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. In faith, we call Jesus our Lord. In hope, we know he has prepared a room for us in his Father’s house. Charity is our loving as Jesus loved – a sacrificial love for the other that is pure gift without any consideration of the worthiness of the receiver.

We are about to receive Our Lord into our bodies in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and Holy Communion. We will state for all to hear that we are not worthy that He should come under our roof, but we trust in His Word in faith and hope. The gift of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is not conditional. It is for all who believe in him, for all who trust in him, for all who hope in him, and for all who love him.

Having been fed with the supernatural Bread of Life in the Mass, we can confidently go out into the world and share the good news by how we live. We can show appropriate concern about food, clothing, and shelter for ourselves and our neighbors while never losing sight of the home to which our Lord calls us.

The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.