Giving God a Chance

H120729Ord17b  Giving God an Opportunity

We threw a party at Lagrange to celebrate Fr McKelson’s 65^th birthday in 1996, and caught 65 big salmon to share with the community. The night came, the BBQs were stoked up and a group went to get the fish. They came back with no fish, as the power to the fridges had been cut and all the fish had gone off: what a disaster. So what do you do to feed two hundred people in such a situation? Sr Veronica, Sr Johanna and the church leaders set about cooking anything we had, but there was no way it was going to feed that many people. I know we did not have enough food to feed that many people, but we did, and we had a bit leftover.

We could have easily said: “No way, we can’t do this” and pointed out that we don’t normally keep food for an extra 200 people in case they come past. That would have been logical, but not in the ways of faith. That would have been the way of we had wanted to control, everything and leave no room for God to intervene. We chose to take the punt, to strike out in faith. We were not disappointed. Often we consider the reasons that something will not work, or why we can’t achieve a goal, but this is not what God is asking us to consider.

Jesus asks his disciples what they have, and they present the total food of the crowd. Jesus takes that and uses it to lift everyone up and create something wonderful. He would not have been able to do it if the people did not have faith, and if they had not allowed him to use their gifts, as imperfect as they were. However, they did allow God space to move, to create and to form them, and how wonderful was the result!

So what is this saying to us on this day in Broome? All too often we admit our weaknesses only in terms of defeat. We can’t do something because of x y or z reason. As Christians we are called  to something higher. Sure, we can’t do everything, but we can do our part. We are part of a magnificent whole that God is creating, and we are all able to contribute. On Thursday Lizzie Sockarni, who was dying, was praying fervently for her family and friends. Everyone has an outreach and can contributed to the apostolate.

We are here to celebrate and strengthen our faith. Soon we will bring bread and wine, the staples of life, and allow the Holy Spirit to transform them into the Body and Blood of Christ. The feeding of the five thousand clearly alludes to the Eucharist. Our poor contributions are multiplied by God so that we are fed.  There is twelve baskets left over, representing the twelve tribes of Israel: in other words there is enough left over to feed the whole world!

This year is the Year of Grace. Grace is the gift of the Holy Spirit that allows us to see and respond to God in who is present in our world. If we live a life in grace, we can not only see but respond to God; we can recognise the presence of God in events that many people find meaningless or even cruel. However, grace also enables us to declare our littleness, our need for each other, for community and for each other, our need to be church gathered around this altar.

God is a great provider, but can only feed us if we are prepared to contribute the gifts we have been given.

Homily OLQP Cathedral Broome, 29^th July 2012