A Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Saturday, July 27, 2024
Prince of Peace Catholic Church – 4:00 Vigil Mass
2 Kings 4:42-44; Psalm 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18; Ephesians 4:1-6; John 6:1-15
Audio Recording
Today we celebrate the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. At the conclusion of Mass, Fr. Tim will bless all of us grandparents and seniors present here today.
Today’s Gospel reading is the story of the feeding of the five thousand. Actually, it was far more than five thousand, as the five thousand was just the number of men that were fed. There were also many women and children present who also ate the miraculously multiplied bread and fish.
While there are many lessons we could take from today’s Gospel account of the miracle Jesus performed with the five loaves and two fish, I’d like to focus on how Jesus continues to multiply the most important things of life in the world today. These things are essential for our spiritual well-being and for the good of our neighbor. Let’s call them SPIRITUAL GOODS.
Unlike material goods, spiritual goods multiply when they are shared. They are in contrast to material goods, which divide when they are shared. For example, if I give you one of my two slices of pizza, I have only one left. If I give you a slice of my pie, I have one less slice remaining. Right?
But if I give you my joy, love, or kindness, they’re multiplied. Unlike material goods, I don’t lose anything by giving them away. In fact I actually get them back. The more of these spiritual goods I give away, the more of them I receive. Sharing your joys with others always multiplies your joy. Sharing your love increases your love. We can all relate to this, can’t we?
While most of us can understand and appreciate that the sharing of spiritual goods multiplies these goods, we might find it more difficult to accept this next spiritual truth, this more subtle miracle of multiplication. I’m referring to the multiplication of TIME.
Now I know that some of you are thinking, has Deacon Scott lost his mind? Stay with me now.
Of course, the multiplication of physical time, the time that measures the movement of our planet around the sun, the time that we track on our watches, is literally impossible. We all know that there are only 24 hours in a day, period.
But there is another kind of time we all experience. Let’s call it spiritual time. We might also call it mental time, or lived time. It’s the kind of time that measures purposes and desires and goods. This kind of time is not limited to the laws of physical time.
There’s a Greek word that denotes this kind of spiritual time: KAIROS. This is in contrast to the clock time that runs the world. The Greek word for this type of time is CHRONOS. It’s the root word for chronological, meaning following the order of the clock.
Let me ask you a question … what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you wake up each morning? Is it all the things you need to accomplish today or how you have to get ready for this or that activity?
The very first choice we make when we begin our day is crucial to our spiritual lives. Do we sometimes think “I’m too busy to pray.” Or we might tell ourselves, “I’ll just say a quick Our Father because God understands how crazy this day is going to be.” Or maybe we just choose not to pray at all.
But, if you begin your day in prayer, either in your home or perhaps going to 8:00 Mass before you start the rest of your day, a miracle happens. When you give God what’s right and not what’s left, at the end of the day you’ll wonder how you accomplished everything you accomplished.
The answer is that you gave a little of your time to the Lord of time and he MULTIPLIED it! But if we DON’T make time for prayer each morning, then we most likely will wonder at the end of the day where all the time went and why we didn’t accomplish more.
So just how much time should be our minimum for prayer? Many would tell you that it’s all up to you…that it’s between you and God. But I’m not going to do that. I’m going to give you an assignment. I want everyone here to commit to praying every morning for at least fifteen minutes. That’s right, half of a silly 30 minute TV show. Fifteen minutes of prayer every morning.
I believe this is a MINIMUM amount of time we should each be praying each morning, even if it means we have to rise 15 minutes earlier than normal. Ideally, we should be taking advantage of daily Mass offered at 8:00 here every day, but I’m not going to make that your assignment because I know it’s not possible for everyone to do.
In your morning prayer, you’ll want to include some of your own personal, spontaneous prayers, being completely honest with God, asking him for your needs, the needs of others, and sharing with him your concerns. Listen to him speak to you by meditating on the daily Mass readings. You might also want to pray the Rosary.
How you pray and what you pray is not what really matters to God. What matters is that you pray. Just SHOW UP every day to acknowledge Him as your God and to thank Him for the many blessings he’s given you. Your prayer doesn’t have to be perfect and it won’t always seem to be fruitful, but God prizes our efforts, not our success. Praying at the start of the day is guaranteed to make your day much better. You’ll be more peaceful and more productive.
The fact is that the devil HATES it when we pray…he’s TERRIFIED of our prayers and he’ll do everything he can to keep us from praying. The enemy hates us and doesn’t want us to experience the joy we get from a relationship with Jesus, a relationship nurtured in daily prayer. He distracts us from praying and then he makes us feel guilty, ashamed and unworthy of God’s love when we don’t pray. Don’t let him get away with this! Make time for daily prayer!
OK, who can tell me what your homework is this week and in the coming weeks? Anyone? That’s right, to pray the FIRST THING every morning for a minimum of 15 minutes, come hell or high water.
Willingly give God just a few loaves and a couple of fish of your time each day and watch how he performs the miracle of multiplication of your time. See how you’re still able to get everything done and how you’ll experience more and more the good fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life.
Are you in? Can I count on you? Wonderful and God bless you.