Given more than enough

 

Would we set out to do our shopping without money in our pockets or at least our cards. There are almost daily reports of a cost-of-living crisis where people seek to make ends meet. The demands on the household budget where people seek to meet their immediate needs while also living a fulfilled life. This is where the readings for this weekend look at how meeting these pressures can leave us in a lonely place seeking to find a deeper purpose for our lives.

What do we seek when we come to Mass? The Gospel for this weekend points to coming to a lonely place where they could be by themselves. In our daily lives we can be crowded with people and events. Jesus gathers us so that we can be healed, forgiven and nourished. Spending time to be present to God and to each other can sustain us for the following week. Mass is the source and summit of our lives. We often come with what appears to not enough to feed us, we come with “five loaves and two fish”. This is the title of a book by Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen van Thuan who spent 13 years in prison, 9 of those in solitary confinement. It was in that lonely place that we celebrated Mass on his own and was found to convert the guards who were placed to keep an eye on him. Do we allow Jesus to meet us even in the empty space within us that only God can fill?

This is where the prophet Isaiah can help us to seek God even when we seem to be running on empty. He is asking to look to what can nourish our hunger and satisfy our thirst. He says, “listen, listen to me and you will have good things to eat and rich food to enjoy.” What he says to us today are very simple but profound moments that help us to satisfy our deepest need.

He says pay attention. This is more than just pricking our ears up, but it is a way of being present to what motivates us in life. We need to leave aside some things that are undone so that we can attend to God. This means that we need to reorientate our lives and come to God even amid lives that can be occupied with many things. We need to find space in our lives where we can be alone with God. This may be in Church, in our homes or out on a daily walk praying the rosary. We need this time where we can listen to God meeting us in our daily lives. This is what will enliven our souls and enrich our days.

This encouragement comes from St Paul’s letter to the Romans, where he says, “Nothing can come between us and the love of Christ” Nothing can come between us even though the worries and practical circumstances of our lives seem to close in around us. He adds, by emphasis that there is no power or situation that come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So, as we come to the Eucharist today sometimes, we can be focused on what has brought us here or what we need to do next. Yet here in this place Jesus meets us and sustains us. When the gifts of bread and wine are brought to the altar maybe add your own silent prayer. Jesus has brought us together to feed and nourish us. What seems so little feeds many in super abundance. The Eucharistic miracle that we are present to each Sunday is not just to feed ourselves but to feed our world. This may seem incredible, but God calls us together to receive the gift of our lives, to bless us, to break open our hearts and to share what we receive for the good of the world. Where does God entrust us with this simple mission of praising his name forever?