We Need A Miracle, Or Do We Have One? Yes, You're It!

This last Sunday the Gospel was about the loaves and fishes and how Jesus had the disciples distribute the food among the crowd of 5000 men, plus woman and children. Starting out with just a few fish and a few loaves of bread, it appears we could use a miracle like that today with 26,500-30,000 people die each day due to poverty, curable diseases, and lack of nutrition. According to the Bread for the World Institute 3.5 percent of U.S. households experience hunger, some people in these households frequently skip meals or eat too little, sometimes going without food for a whole day. 9.6 million People, including 3 million children, live in these homes.

Going back to the miracle, you can only imagine how all these people ended up eating and filling more baskets with scrapes after having their fill. It can happen, and it does happen today. Let’s look on a local level for a moment. Many times there is a food drive and special push for the local food bank, or St. Vincent DePaul’s Society, to replenish their shelves so they can handle the extra load of additional people in need. (Like today) All of a sudden those of us who may be more fortunate come through with a check or clean out our cupboards to donate to these worthy causes. The less fortunate are supplied the goods, the shelves end up with more than they had to begin with, and the miracle has happened again, again and again.

The fact of the matter is that we are truly blessed in so many ways. Despite all of the ups and downs locally and nationally, however each of us have a moral obligation to do everything we can for the marginalized in this world. We can count on CRS (Catholic Relief Services) and many other fine Christian Organizations to take our contributions and to be part of the miracle, helping those around the world. On a local level, when we are overwhelmed by negative news of poverty, layoffs, and people losing their homes, we can do as Mother Theresa has indicated, “Your Calcutta is down the street, go love and serve your neighbor, that’s your Calcutta”.
Thank God for the ability to empathize with the pain and suffering of others so we can realize what our purpose in life is. As saint Nike says: Do It Now!

Priests, Prophets and Kings –Who Me?

Prophets appear to have been inspired by God to see the divine plan during their signs of the times. As I reflected on some of my recent readings, I had to stop and think who might be Prophets today my life time? Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, all come to mind. I believe we have thousands of prophets living today or who have died recently, who have proclaimed God’s word in one fashion or another. Actually, we are priests, prophets and kings ourselves, as a result of the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist?

As I reflect on my own life I can see where I would have a long way to go in order to be any kind of a prophet like St. Francis of Assisi, Jeremiah, Isaiah, or any of the prophets of those times. Looking at their circumstances, I am not sure I would have been as brave, persistent, and obedient. I guess that is why it is a gift to be a prophet. Now, Pope John Paul II, Mother Theresa, and Billy Graham have been prophets of our time and have charismatically inspired through Gods word, different concerns, complacency, errors, and ideas for our secular world to come out of its sanity. I am sure there are numerous others, like them who deserve the same credit; however as an illustrative example I have chosen these three.

Working with RCIA, visiting the Rescue Mission, Being a Eucharistic Minister or going to the nursing home does not make me feel like a prophet. Writing my Senator or local congressperson, sending a small donation to Catholic Relief Services does give me a sense of making an effort toward being a better prophet. I believe that is why we are priests, prophets and kings, so we can cover all these areas of ministry.

I think the purpose of a good prophet is to make his or her audience feel the guilt, pain and compassion concerning the situation. Over the past seven years I have tried to educate myself more and more with social justice and the current world situation, I have become very motivated to do what little I can to contribute to the cause of social justice. For me to be prophetic is to be moved to compassion, to stand with those who suffer and whom the world no longer cares about.

In the developing world 1.2 billion people are living below the international poverty line of earning less than $1.00 per day. It is a sin that 24,000 people die each day of hunger and hunger related causes. That is one person every 3.6 seconds who are made in the image of God and destroyed by the sins of omission. I must continue to ask, why are people starving around the world? Why is the USA, the richest nation in the world, allowing its people to live in poverty, and to be homeless in this land of opportunity?

I think I am becoming more focused as I continue to discern over the direction to take. I will need to become more focused in one direction in order to handle my personal work load and a balanced life. I only pray that the fire in my heart continues to burn so I can help in some small way to transform our unjust society and carry out my share of dignity with the Church and other Christian people, as one body in Christ to carry out our mission of priestly, prophetic and kingly people. I trust we will as Catholics, always have priests, prophets and kings in all the various ministries to hear God’s word and do God’s deeds. My obligation is to find out where I belong on this faith journey, so I can serve as a compassionate mouth piece for God in my time and place. What about you?