Word to the Wise
Sunday, July 29, 2012 - 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time - B
[2 Kgs 4:42-44; Eph 4:1-6; John 6:1-15]One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?"
Today I am at another retreat center to preach a retreat for Permanent Deacons - this time from the Archdiocese of New Orleans. As is my usual custom, I take as a theme for the retreat something from the gospel scripture for the Sunday liturgy. The lines I have quoted above are from the account of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes in the Gospel of John. This miracle (or "sign" as John would use it) appears in all four of the gospels, but John has its own "agenda." John uses the sign as an introduction to the very important "bread of life" discourse. I urge the Beloved Congregation to read all of chapter six to gain the full benefit of the story. Notice among other things that Jesus does not give the loaves and fishes to the disciples, but does the job himself. Notice too that the story ends with some confusion about Jesus' identity, which does not happen in the other accounts in the other three gospels. The focus is on the identity of Jesus and not on the service of the disciples.
For our purposes, and for the retreatants as well, I want to focus on the lines from Andrew and his question about the meager loaves and fishes: "But what good are these for so many?" Every minister at some point is faced with the inadequacy of resources to meet the needs confronting him or her. This is more than simply a matter of money or supplies. It can be very personal and overwhelming! I have felt this on more than a few occasions in my years of pastoral ministry. We can easily lose confidence in the resources we have. However, it may not be a matter of "adequacy" but a realization that the "success" of our ministry does not depend on us. We may need to accept the fact that we must do the best we can and leave the rest fo Jesus! Our job may well be to pick up the fragments later on! Sometimes this lesson is a painful one to learn, but in the long run we learn not just about ourselves but who Jesus really is. AMEN
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