Boats--Bread--Blessings

By Lucy Strohl OPA ~ April 7, 2008

Readings: Acts 6: 8-15, Gospel: John 6: 22-29                          

One, a career Navy nurse, assists in delivering babies and still loves every minute. One works five days a week while  helping with the needs of her daughter and family. The daughter was partially paralyzed after an accident. One operates two veterinary clinics and now has Parkinson's disease. One has experienced the death of his wife, daughter and father in recent years. One grieves for her husband whom she companioned during his illness and death from pancreatic cancer. To another I had to say "I love you, but I have to hang up now". Calling my mom's house sometimes, he talks nonsensically when he refuses to take  medicine for his mental illness. One I don't see often, but he always greets me with a big smile and good conversation; he's a farmer.  He tills the fields and works like heck during June to harvest the grain that is part of the Bread of Life at this table.  With the dirt under his fingernails and the grime on his hands, I doubt he, like all the rest, has ever been told what a co-minister of Communion he’s been all these years. Reflecting on the Gospel, these fragments from  the  bread the lives of some of  those with whom I received Communion for the first time, came to mind.  That was in St. Leo, Kansas 50- some years ago; they  continue to teach me.  Sr Sibyllina instructed us then.  She, too, continues to teach me-- as so MANY of you do--about how we become blessing and bread for one another, broken and shared daily.  Sometimes it's very difficult to keep believing, following the Lord.  The vessels of our lives are fragile. In today's scripture, the disciples left.  It was members of the crowd who got into boats, finding Jesus across the sea. Maybe the courage to make the crossing came from the way Jesus looked at them the day before: knowingly, patiently, gently.

Though we may find ourselves these days somewhere between on course and wildly adrift , we too are given grace and power like Stephen-- mentioned in the first reading.  We may be admired and respected, or rejected just like he was.  Seeing to the needs of the poor and the outcast was the bread of Stephen's life. Today  we also remember St. John Baptist de la Salle.  As a young 17th-century Frenchmen, John had everything going for him.  He was a scholar, from a noble and wealthy family. He seemed assured of a life of dignified ease and a high position in the church.  Wouldn't you know it?  God had other plans, other shores, for him to explore.

He had a chance meeting with a committed layman who oversaw the education of poor boys.  John never set out to do this.  In fact, the work was extremely distasteful to him at first.  He was asked to help organize a group of marginally competent teachers.  One decision led to another and John found himself doing what he had never ever anticipated.  Can't we all  recall an incident like that in our lives?  John tells us: "God  guides all things with wisdom and serenity. God who does not force, committed me entirely to the development of schools, doing this in an imperceptible way, over a long period of time."  John de la Salle is the founder of the Christian Brothers and the patron of teachers. Later in life he commented, "touching the hearts of the young is the greatest miracle we can perform". Yet even in success John didn’t escape many boat over- turnings himself .  These included heartrending disappointment and defection  among his followers, bitter opposition from those resenting his new and fruitful methods, disapproval and rancor from the Jansenists of his time whose doctrines he vehemently resisted. There's a lot we can glean from the bread of Stephen and John's experiences. And let's not overlook the myriad of ways the Bread of Life has been blessed, broken and shared with us-- through the fragments, the stories -- of our own lives and that of  many others--all can bless, bruise and nourish us on our journey.

 Jesus yearns for the disciples , for us to look beyond the bread to a deeper hunger and thirst.  What is it our heart seeks today?  Part of our family that we bring to this table, the Dominican Eucharistic Missionaries of New Orleans reminds us: "Our life is wheat and bread, grape and vine, remembering, acclaiming, forgiving.  It is sending, gifting and praying; it is discovery... revealing  the Body and Blood, the pain, the glory of God.” As our prayer continues we ask all our Christian brothers and sisters to pray with us and for us, for our broken world--that the Holy Spirit be our source of energy, empowering us to do the work of God.  Loving and generous God, in the wonderful Bread of the Eucharist you have given us as a memorial of your Passionate Love for us.  Let your Spirit come upon us anew--to make us Holy Preachers where we are--so that we may become the Body and Blood of Jesus, bread freely given in some small way today, for the love You gave. As we are sent forth, let us remember what our Song of Praise recalls: Lord, you are the resting place of our restless hearts, our companion and refuge. Truly, all we long for we have found here.  With You at our side, we can seek other shores.  Jesus, Bread of Life, You are the only food that lasts, sustaining us for our journey.