Gospel for Today: 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (A)

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Last week we read  the iconic scene in Matthew's gospel where Peter confessed his faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, after which Christ told Peter, "You are Peter (rock), and upon this rock I will build my Church."  The Catholic Church still today stands firm upon the rock of Peter, living on through his successors, the Popes.  But today, just a few verses later in the same chapter of that gospel, we find Jesus telling Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!  You are an obstacle to me."  What gives?  Did Jesus have a change of heart?  No.  Jesus is the same in both instances.  It is Peter who has changed.  

Peter could not accept what Jesus was telling the disciples; namely that He must go to Jerusalem, suffer, die, and then rise from the dead.  Peter could neither stomach nor understand this teaching.  "God forbid, Lord!" he told Jesus.  "No such thing shall even happen to you."

Last week, after Peter made his confession of faith, Christ said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon-bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but your Father in heaven."  In other words, Peter was not listening to other people, or even his own thinking, when he said that Jesus was the Son of God.  He was allowing himself to listen to God, and to trust what God was telling him.  By contrast, in today's reading Christ tells Peter, "You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."  Peter was relying on his own inclinations and his own way of thinking.  He was trusting himself more than he was trusting in Christ, and that reliance on self is what led him astray.

Satan means "adversary," and it can be used as a name for Lucifer, the fallen angel; but it can also be applied to us when we allow ourselves to become adversaries of God.  We do this when we  rely on our own will above the will of God.  This is easy to do.  And it does not necessarily require a full and total rejection of God.   Peter was certainly not rejecting Jesus outright  when he told him He was not to die in Jerusalem.  Rather, what he was hearing from Jesus was hard for him to accept.  According to his human mind, what Jesus was saying did not make sense.  Why should the Messiah suffer?  Peter could not understand it, and so he denied it.  It was not a total rejection of God, but a lack of faith on the part of Peter that caused Christ to say, "Get behind me, Satan!"

It is easy for us to also lack faith, especially when confronted with a difficult teaching of the Church.  And let's face it, there are plenty of them.  Many of the Church's teachings can be hard for us to wrap our minds around intellectually.  How can God be both one and three?  How can a virgin give birth to a Son?  How can Christ be fully human and also fully God?  How can bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ?  

But for us today, more than the theological teachings of the Church, it is the moral teachings that confound us -- not necessarily because we do not understand them, but we find them hard to practice in our lives.  The "seven deadly sins" are called deadly because they have a way of anchoring themselves into our hearts and turning us away from the love of God.  We all have sins that we find especially hard to resist.  Take your pick -- pride, lust, envy, green, sloth, gluttony, wrath -- any can easily ensnare you.  We know these things to be bad for us.  Yet we allow ourselves to fall into bad habits and then we cannot see a way out.

The Church tells us we are to be holy.  But when we think about our own lives and how attached we are to sin, we can easily start to think that what the Church demands is unreasonable.  We can never live up to God's standards.  And so we don't even try.  We give up.  We become adversaries both to Christ and to our own good, and so Jesus rightly rebukes us. "Get behind me, Satan!"  

But Jesus rebukes us in order to correct us, and ultimately heal us.  He does not want us to give up.  Rather, He wants us to keep up the struggle, no matter how hard.  The fact that we struggle with sin is not a sign of weakness.  It is a sign of strength.  The struggle means we have not given up.  Ultimately, though, we must recognize that we cannot win the battle against sin by relying on ourselves.   We need His help.  Christ tells us, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."  We must deny ourselves because we are totally unable of saving ourselves.  We take up the cross of Christ because only there we find our salvation.

G. K. Chesterton once said that Christianity has not been tried and found lacking; rather it has been found difficult and not tried.  That is true in our day even more than in his.  We are afraid to even try, because the goal seems unreachable.  Yet, it is that goal -- the goal of being authentic, holy, people living in the love of God -- that calls to us in the deepest part of our beings, even as we try our best to deny that we need Him.  Our first reading today from Jeremiah beautifully describes the feeling that many who have distanced themselves from the Church experience, but dare not admit to.  "I say to myself, I will not mention Him, I will speak in His name no more.  But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it" (Jer 20:9).

Our souls hunger for God because we were made for Him; ultimately only God can satisfy our longings.  St. Augustine, whose feast day we celebrated last week, famously wrote in his Confessions, "Our hearts are restless, until they find their rest in Thee."  Our psalm today speaks of our souls thirsting for God in these terms: "O God, you are my God whom I seek; for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water" (Ps 63:2).

Yet even the soul that recognizes its deep hunger for God may still say, "How can I make a return to God, when I have strayed so far from Him?"  I am reminded of the advice of a sixteenth century Carmelite monk named Brother Lawrence, who when he failed in his duties to God simply confessed to God, "I shall never do otherwise if You leave me to myself; it is You who must hinder my failing and mend what is amiss."  And then he turned back to God and troubled himself no more about it.  

Ultimately it is this trust in God, this faith in His help and in His mercy, that will allow us to rise above our failings and become the holy -- and happy -- men and women God created us to be. Yes, we will fail.  Even Peter, the leader of the Apostles, the one upon whom Christ built the Church, failed in his faith on more than one occasion.  Yet he became a great saint, and now enjoys the Beatific Vision of God for all eternity.  You will fail in your faith, because you will continue to trust in yourself more than in God.  When you do, do not despair.  Do not give up.  Confess your sins, acknowledge your hunger for God, ask Him to help you grow in holiness.  Above all, keep trying.  Keep up the fight.  God knows it is hard, and He honors the struggle.  After all, one definition of a saint is a sinner who never gave up.

--

WCU Catholic Campus Ministry

Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister

www.WCUCatholic.org

  

(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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Gospel For Today: 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (A)

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Tu est Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificábo Ecclésiam meam...  This is the first part of the antiphon we hear at Mass today before the gospel reading.  It quotes from the gospel itself (Mt 16:13-20), which in English says, "You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it."  This iconic passage takes place at Caesarea Philippi, a place the gospel writer mentions specifically.  If you do a Google image search on line you can see this place.  There is a huge stone outcropping with a temple built upon it to the pagan god Pan.  It is by this backdrop that Jesus changes Simon's name to Peter (which means "rock") and says, "upon this rock I will build my Church."

This is obviously a very key moment in the gospels, and so it is important to consider just what is happening here.  This passage is foundational to our understanding of the Church, for Christ tells us not only that He intends to found His Church upon a person (Peter), but also what sort of authority that person will have.  "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.  Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

The Church also gives us today an Old Testament reading from Isaiah 22:19-23 which speaks of keys being given to convey authority.  "I will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim's shoulder; when he opens no one shall shut, when he shuts no one shall open.  I will fix him like a peg in a sure spot..."  There is obvious similarity between this and our gospel reading.  What is the significance?

In the history of Israel, there developed the office of prime minister.  This person had the authority to rule over the kingdom in the absence of the king.  It was an office that could be passed on from one generation to the next, symbolized by keys.  What we read in our passage from Isaiah today is God passing on the authority of the prime minister of the Davidic kingdom from Shebna to Eliakim.  It is no coincidence that Jesus uses the same symbol of keys, and nearly the same phraseology, to establish the prime ministerial office of His Kingdom upon Peter, an office which can be passed on from one generation to the next.  The enduring nature of this office is implied when Christ promises that the gates of hell will not prevail against His Church.

Instead of "opening" and "shutting" as we hear in Isaiah, Jesus speaks of the power to "bind" and "loose."  This phraseology would also have been familiar to the Jewish people.  It signified to them the authority to teach and render binding decisions on the law, and the authority to include or exclude people from the community.  It also signifies the forgiveness of sins.  This is why even to this day we speak of the authority of the Church to teach, govern and sanctify (Catechism of the Catholic Church 888-896).

There is something about this passage, however, which can easily be overlooked in English translation.  Many languages have different words for the second person pronoun depending on whether it is singular or plural.  English uses "you" for both.  If we were reading this passage in Spanish, or more to the point, the original Greek, we would see that Jesus uses the singular "you" when He tells Peter, "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven."  But Jesus uses the plural "you" when He says, "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."  In other words, Peter alone possesses the keys of the kingdom (symbolizing the prime ministerial authority), but the Apostles together with Peter possess the power to bind and loose (CCC 881).  

What does all this mean for us in the Church today?  How does this authority granted to the Church by Christ play out in history?  We can give one very prominent example dealing with the scriptures themselves.  From the very beginning, the liturgies of the early Church included readings from sacred scripture.  These included readings from the Hebrew Bible, what we call the Old Testament, but very quickly also included readings about Jesus and the teachings of the new Christian Church.  These would include gospel accounts of Jesus' life and mission.  These would also include letters written by the Apostles to various people and Christian communities.  However, there was no set "New Testament."  There was no authoritative list of which books were inspired by God and which were not.

This led to some variation in what texts were read from during the liturgies.  To ensure unity in worship, local bishops, utilizing their authority as chief shepherds of their particular churches, began to keep lists of books which were approved for liturgical use in their church (what we would call a diocese today). The earliest such lists that we know of date to the end of the second century.  But still, this meant that different texts were considered canonical in one region but not in another.  This became problematic for the universal Church as different heresies arose, especially Gnosticism.  The Gnostics would write their own gospels, containing teachings rather contrary to the Apostolic faith, which would circulate and lead to confusion among the faithful.  (If you watch the Discovery Channel or the History Channel around Christmas and Easter you often see documentaries on "The Lost Gospel of Judas," or "The Lost Gospel of Thomas."  These are Gnostic gospels, not lost Christian gospels  The Church has known about them for about 1700 years, so no one should have their faith shaken by their existence.)

And so regional councils of bishops together met and discussed which books should officially be included in the canon of the Bible.  Two councils, at Hippo in 393 AD and Carthage in 397 AD, would approve the list of 73 books which are still contained in the Catholic Bible today.  These were local councils (not full ecumenical councils of the Church), and so their decrees are not binding on the universal Church.  So in the year 405, Pope Innocent I, successor of St. Peter, affirmed the same list of 73 books.  The case was closed, so to speak, from that point forward until the Protestant Reformation when Martin Luther and his followers questioned the legitimacy of certain Old Testament books (what Catholics call the deuterocanon and Protestants call the apocrypha) and removed them.  The Council of Trent (1545-63), a full Ecumenical Council of the Church, exercising the teaching authority of all the bishops united with the pope, reaffirmed the canon of 73 books in the face of this controversy.  

And so the very reason we have the scriptures that we do today, and the faith that they contain the inspired Word of God, is due to the exercise of the teaching authority to bind and loose that Christ gave to Peter, His "prime minister," and to the Apostles.  This is why St. Augustine could say, "I would not believe in the gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so" (397 AD).  

In the end we all submit ourselves to some authority, even if only the authority of popular opinion.  To be true to ourselves and who we were made to be, we should submit ourselves only to the authority of God, the author of all Creation.  That authority exists in Christ, His Son, who not only became man but saw fit to allow man to share in that divine authority.  That authority has been transmitted from Peter and the Apostles down through the ages right to today with Pope Francis and all the bishops of the Church, including our Bishop of Charlotte, Peter Jugis.  It is the same Church that Christ founded upon Peter, teaching the same Apostolic faith, and possessing the same authority from God to lead her people to salvation.  

--

WCU Catholic Campus Ministry

Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister

www.WCUCatholic.org

  

(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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Gospel for Today: 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time

TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (A)

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Imagine your best friend is sick; deathly ill, in fact.  You don't know what to do and you are afraid she won't make it.  So you rush her to the hospital.  You spot a doctor in a white coat walking down the hall and call for him to help.   You know he can hear you, but he doesn't say a word.  He doesn't even acknowledge your presence.  You keep calling, until some orderlies ask the doctor if he wants them to tell you to leave.  But you rush up to the doctor and ask him for help one last time.  And he looks at you and says, "We don't treat dogs here."

Ouch.  How incredibly rude and offensive!  You'd expect that doctor lose his job and maybe even face criminal neglect charges.  Now imagine that doctor is Jesus.

We can't imagine being treated this way, especially when we are in a desperate and vulnerable situation.  Yet this scene is more or less what we read in today's gospel (Mt 15:21-28) of the Canaanite woman who asked Jesus to heal her daughter.  This sort of encounter doesn't really fit our image that we have of Jesus.  Jesus is nice.  Jesus is friendly.  Jesus helps people.  We don't imaging Jesus telling someone who is desperately asking Him for help that they are a dog not worth the effort.  Yet here it is, in the scriptures we read today.  What are we to make of this?

Well, by the end of the gospel reading, we learn that Jesus does indeed help this woman.  He heals her daughter.  And he even commends the woman, "O woman, great is your faith!"  This is the lesson Christ teaches us today -- the faith expressed by the Canaanite woman.

You see, the Canaanites were considered unclean by the Jewish people, who commonly referred to them as "dogs."  If we imagine ourselves as Canaanites being told that it is not right to take the food meant for the children (the Isrealites) and throw it to the dogs,  we would take great offense.  We would walk away in a huff, declaring we were "too good" to be treated that way.  But not the woman in today's gospel.  She didn't let her ego get in the way of her faith.  She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters."

It is only then that Christ tells her, "O woman, great is your faith!'  The Canaanite woman is humble, and that is the key to unlocking the door of God's grace.  Humility is so hard for us today, with our over-inflated egos.  We think we deserve so much, and this is why we simply cannot tolerate people being rude to us, or depriving us of what we believe is our due.  This attitude may do you well when you are shopping for a new car or negotiating a salary increase.  But when dealing with God, it is the exact wrong attitude to have.  When it comes to God, the truth is you don't deserve anything.  Not a thing.  You can never merit any favor from God.  You can never be in a position where God owes you anything.  

We don't like that sort of imbalance of power.  We prefer dealing with equals.  Being in a relationship with someone who will never owe you anything, but to whom you will always owe everything is intolerable -- unless you possess humility.  And the Canaanite woman gets that.  This is why she is content to beg for scraps.  And this is why she receives an abundance of grace.

God never gives because He owes us.  He gives because He loves us.  And how He loves us!  That same Jesus who tells the humble woman today, "It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs," would go on to endure the worst kind of humiliation and death for people just like her (and you, and me).  He would pour out His grace upon all mankind in such a way that would be utterly unbelievable if it were not true.  Not because He owes us.  Because He loves us.

He continues to pour those graces upon His Church even to this day.  The Canaanite woman only begged for scraps from the masters' table.  We have available to us the very bread of heaven, the Body & Blood of Christ.  Think about this: you have the opportunity every Sunday -- every day if you so desired -- to be kissed on the lips by your Maker.  This is the intimate way God desires to come to us in the Eucharist at Mass.  

The Canaanite woman was happy to beg for only the scraps of God's grace.  Is the Eucharist something you would be willing to beg for?  Most of us have never been in a situation where we were deprived of the sacraments.  But far too many of us have turned away from them by choice or by neglect.  We have taken God for granted.  Today, as we start a new semester, and as many begin their college career away from home for the first time, I pray that you never take God's gift of the sacraments for granted.  Today is the first Sunday that many of you will go to Mass not because your parents make you go, but because you want to give God worship and commune with Him.  

Worshiping with the Church every Sunday and making a habit of prayer every day, help to keep us humble.  These things help remind us each day that we are dependent upon God and should be thankful for all He gives us.  But make no mistake.  We should not strive for humility thinking that humility will merit God's favor.  This is false humility.  Humility does not merit God's favor: humility is recognizing that nothing merit's God's favor.  Therefore humility allows us to approach God not with the cry of modern man -- "I deserve...!" -- but with the plea of the Canaanite woman, "Please, Lord..."  Only the humble heart can receive God's grace, because only the humble heart knows it must ask for it.  May we all have such humility.

During your time at college, know that you are in my prayers, and in the prayers of the larger CCM community.  Know that we are here for you whenever you need us, but more importantly, know that Christ is here for you.  You will form many new relationships during your college years and those relationships will form who you are.  The most important relationship you can develop is you relationship with Christ.  CCM is here to help facilitate that relationship in any way we can.  It starts today with Sunday Mass, with the Eucharist, the "source and summit of our faith" (Lumen Gentium 11).  You don't have to beg for scraps.  You are invited to the feast.  

--

WCU Catholic Campus Ministry

Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister

www.WCUCatholic.org

  

(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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Gospel For Today: 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time

NINETEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (A)

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​I had the privilege yesterday of leading several faith formation catechists on a retreat to help them prepare for the start of a new school year.  These are people who volunteer their time preparing children to receive the sacraments, teaching them the faith, and leading them closer to Christ.  In sharing both the struggles and joys of their ministry, one catechist remarked that whenever she felt frustrated or discouraged it was usually because she was trying to do it all herself.  She did not mean that others in the parish were not helping her.  What she meant was that she was carrying the full responsibility of bringing these children to Christ on her own shoulders.  She was forgetting that God has a role to play.  It is Christ who saves them, after all, not her.  

I can relate.  In campus ministry, as with any ministry, there are ups and downs.  The work can feel like a burden or a privilege.  The times when I feel discouraged are precisely those times when I hold the reigns too closely; when I get caught up in the mundane minutia of the job and forget to spend time in the chapel praying for the ministry.  The times when I feel a great energy in our campus ministry are those times when I make the effort each day to pray for God's guidance.  I remind myself that He is in charge, and trust Him to lead the way.  

In ministry, we need to always remember to stay focused on Christ and learn to rely on Him.  But isn't this true in any task we undertake?  It is not only those laboring in ministry that need to spend time in prayer each day and ask for God's help.  Shouldn't it also be true of the doctor going into surgery?  Shouldn't it also be true of the bus driver transporting kids to school?  Shouldn't it also be true of the college professor making a lesson plan?  Shouldn't it also be true of the student preparing to study?  

No matter what your task in life is at the moment, that task will be less burdensome, more joyful, and more pleasing to God if you rely on Christ to help you.  In transitioning to a college life, it can be very easy to lose sight of this.  You are away from home and your normal routine.  You are meeting new people, getting used to a new schedule, adapting to a new environment.  This early stage in the semester can be a time of excitement, chaos, anxiety, and anticipation.  It would be very easy to abandon your usual prayer routine.  It would be very easy to not think about Jesus for a while.  It would be very easy to start bad habits that will become hard to break out of later on.

But this time of transition is also a great opportunity to establish some wonderful new habits.  You will be making new friends on campus.  Find some good Catholic friends.  You will be getting used to a new schedule. Go ahead and put prayer time in your schedule, and time for CCM events.  You will be taking on new adult responsibilities for yourself.  So make an adult commitment to the faith.  Decide to get serious about your relationship with God.  Develop a devotion to Him not because that's what your parents expect of you but because you love Him.  Make that choice.

Ask Jesus to help you.  Ask Him to help you stay faithful and grow in holiness and wisdom during your time in college.  Ask Him to help you with your studies.  Ask Him to help with your relationships.  Just ask Him to help.

In today's gospel reading from Matthew 14:22-33, people always remember the miracle of Jesus walking on the water.  But the more impressive miracle is not that Jesus walked on the water, but that Peter did.  Jesus, after all, is the Son of God.  He made the water. He made walking, for that matter.  We shouldn't be surprised that He can walk on whatever He wishes.  Peter is just a man.  He's a faulty, fallen, frail human being just like us.  But Peter had the courage and conviction to say, "Lord, if you command me to, I will come out to you on the water."  

How often do we hold back from asking the Lord to help us do something, because we are afraid God will say yes, and then actually expect us to do it?  "Lord, command me to come to you on the water."  What a ridiculous request, on the face of it.  Walking on the water?  That's impossible!  But Peter did it.  He only fell when he became distracted by the storm raging around him.  He allowed fear to take hold of him.  But Jesus says, "Do not be afraid."  When Peter kept his focus on Christ, the miraculous happened.  

Your time in college can be a time of great turmoil and stress.  You can feel tossed about by the waves, like the disciples' boat in our reading today.  But do not be afraid.  If you keep your focus on Christ and rely on God's help, you can achieve some seemingly impossible things.  Don't get distracted by the storm and lose sight of what matters.  Cling close to Christ.  You just might walk on water.

--

WCU Catholic Campus Ministry

Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister

www.WCUCatholic.org

  

(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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Gospel For Today: 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (A)

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Today's gospel reading (Mt 14:13-21) recounts the miracle of the loaves and fishes, where Jesus feeds five thousand men (and an undisclosed number of women and children) with only a small amount of food.  The miraculous feeding is certainly awe inspiring, but if we are not careful we may miss the even more important details that hint at why Jesus might have performed this miracle in the first place.

When we think of Jesus feeding the multitudes we may be tempted to think of Christ as a kind of divine social worker, providing food for poor hungry people who might otherwise starve.  And indeed, this is work that Christ praises.  Only a few chapters later in Matthew's gospel Jesus tells us that one of the criteria by which we will be judged at the end of time is whether we have fed the hungry.  But is that act of corporal mercy in fact what Jesus is doing here?

Matthew tells us that this crowd of people had followed Jesus out into the desert.  They must have known there would be no food where they were headed (they don't call it the wilderness for nothing).  But they went anyway, to follow the Lord.  As the day drew to a close, the disciples suggested to Jesus that he send the crowds away so that they could return to their villages and buy food.  In other words, these were people who had the means to feed themselves.  Food was available to them, but they would have to leave Jesus' side to go and get it.  Jesus did not send them away.  Our Lord thought it better that they remain with Him, so He performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes.  He fed their bodies so that He might feed their souls.  

And isn't this the more important feeding?  I don't say this to minimize the plight of those without enough to eat.  Certainly food is vitally important to our well being.  Food supports our bodies, and we ought to care for our bodies.  But our bodies are mortal.  Our souls, on the other hand, are immortal.  Even with all the nourishment we could ever need our bodies would eventually grow old and die.  Our faith tells us we will receive new bodies in the world to come, but the soul we nourish (or fail to) now is the soul we will have forever.  Our Catholic faith has many days of feasting, but the Church also makes time for fasting as a reminder that the health of the soul is of higher import than a full belly.  

The scriptures of today's Mass are full of references to eating and drinking.  In our reading from Isaiah we are invited to "come to the water," to "receive grain and eat," and "drink wine and milk."  Our psalm today (Ps 145) praises God by saying, "the hand of the Lord feeds us."  Jesus continues to feed us today in the Eucharist.  Look at the verbs used to describe what Jesus does with the bread in today's gospel. He "takes," "blesses," "breaks," and "gives."  He will perform the same series of actions at the Last Supper.  The Eucharist is food for our bodies, yes, but the true nourishment we receive is for our souls.  It is spiritual nourishment, bringing us closer to God, the source of our being, and the source of our happiness.  Only in union with our Creator, only in spiritual health, will we be satisfied.  

Our psalm today also tells us that God will "satisfy the desire of every living thing."  The psalmist is not referring merely to the desire of hunger pangs.  Once we eat a meal that hunger is sated... for a time.  But wait a while and we grow hungry again.  Our desire returns.  Such is our condition.  Elsewhere in the gospels we are told, "Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life" (Jn 6:27).

Each desire we have testifies to the means of its fulfillment.  Hunger points to the reality of food.  Thirst points to the reality of water.  If there were no such thing as food or water, we would not have these desires.  Our desires kick in when we lack something that we ought to have.  We desire love, and that desire is fulfilled when we are loved by another.  We desire friendship, and that desire is fulfilled by a friend.  We also desire happiness, and we find all manner of things to make us happy -- at least for a while.  For like food, water, and even friends, the pleasures of this life that make us happy only fulfill that desire temporarily.  Our desire for happiness, however, is constant.  It seems like it is never completely fulfilled.  God, the psalmist tells us, will satisfy our desires completely.  This is how God feeds us.

St. Paul reminds us today in the letter to the Romans that nothing outside of ourselves can separate us from the love of Christ.  Not even famine.  Not even death.  The only way we can be separated from the eternal happiness Christ offers is if we choose to leave Him.  The crowd gathered around Jesus that evening did not want to leave Him.  So Jesus fed them.  He fed their bodies so that He might continue to feed their souls. This is our daily bread -- not bread made from grain but the Bread of Heaven, Jesus Christ, the Word of God. For "man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God" (Mt 4:4).

--

WCU Catholic Campus Ministry

Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister

www.WCUCatholic.org

  

(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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