Loving God, whose hand is open to satisfy the needs of every living creature: Break down the barriers of ignorance, indifference, and greed, we pray, that the multitudes who hunger may share your bounty; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
"They are hungry; get them some soup and sandwiches."
Those words were spoken by Fr. Solanus Casey, a Capuchin monk in Detroit in the 1920s. He was the most famous priest (he died in 1957) when I was growing up in the suburbs of Detroit in the 1970s and 1980s, even for a protestant Episcopalian, we knew who he was.
Blessed Solanus Casey (he is on his way to become a saint in the RC Church) was known for his holiness, for his hospitality as porter at St. Bonaventure Monastery welcoming all who came to the door, and for his inspiring words to those who heard him and to those whom he blessed.
I came across an icon of him recently. His one hand is in the position of blessing, the other is on a soup ladle, which fits perfect with his work in that soup kitchen feeding the body & his blessing the souls of all who came to the corner of Mt Elliot & St Paul in Detroit.
Hunger & Poverty have been around for a long time. Some of us live quite comfortably. We have a good roof over our heads, three square meals, and the ability to live our lives fully. There are others we see and know in our community of Monroe and beyond, who struggle with food and shelter.
National Geographic Magazine asked the question – “Why are people malnourished in the richest country on earth?” (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/hunger/)
“Millions of working Americans don’t know where their next meal is coming from…One-sixth of Americans don’t have enough food to eat. In 2012, 48 million Americans received SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).” “Our own Monroe Food Pantry provides about a week’s worth of food and other necessary items to more than 250 households per month.”
We watched as the federal government shut down, that federal workers who lost a couple of paychecks, had to rely on charity, food banks and such to help them get by. On one level, I think that is a beautiful thing, helping our neighbors in need. On another level though, it is unjust. As we saw from the shutdown, which is true of so many of us, if we lost our paycheck tomorrow, many of us don’t have $400 or beyond in our bank accounts to weather any unexpected expenses and pay our bills and pay our groceries.
The question goes beyond just giving charity, which is a good thing. We need to follow the example of Bl. Solanus Casey. But I think we need to ask deeper questions too, like how our society is structured and why so few receive the benefits that everyone in our society should receive. And there is a counter narrative that if one is poor or suffering then they get what they deserve…
I am reminded of an interview of a homeowner after the great Houston flood of 2017, who balked at aid for neighbors who didn’t have the flood insurance or the means to withstand the flood like his home. His point was that they should have been better prepared, and they deserved their fate and shouldn’t get any government assistance. I was shocked at his unkindness and his miserliness.
Jesus had experienced such reactions. After talking about his mission of serving those in need. Those in the synagogue in Nazareth questioned who Jesus was. He went to talk about how God had helped the other, the foreigner, the gentile too.
And they were enraged at him but he went on his way. They didn’t get it? Do we?
Once upon a time there was a wicked peasant woman. When she died, she did not leave a single good deed behind, so the devils took her and plunged her into a lake of fire.
Her guardian angel stood and tried to think of some good deed she had performed so that the angel could plead for her before God. Finally, he remembered something; it was not a very big thing, but it was something with which he could plead her case before God.
“Lord, she once pulled up an onion in her garden and gave it to a poor beggar,” the angel said to God. God answered: “Very well. Take that onion, hold it out to her in the lake of fire, and let her take hold of it and be pulled out. And if you can pull her out of the lake, let her come to Heaven. But if the onion breaks, then the woman must stay where she is.”
The angel ran to the woman and held out the onion to her. “Come, catch hold and I’ll pull you out.” The old woman grabbed the onion and the angel began to carefully pull her out by the stalks. He had just about pulled her to safety when other sinners in the lake of fire saw how she was being drawn out and tried to catch hold of the onion so that they, too, might be saved. But the wicked woman began kicking them off.
“I’m to be saved, not you!” she screamed. “It’s my onion, not yours!” As soon as she said that, the onion broke, and she fell back into the lake. All her guardian angel could do was weep and walk away. [From The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.]
In today’s Gospel, Jesus emphasizes the generosity of God that all men and women of every race and nation are loved by God as his own children. It is a message that comes as a shock to his Nazareth hearers, who consider Jesus' words betrayal and blasphemy. Like the wicked peasant, they are too absorbed in their own needs and too fearful for their own safety and security, and to miserly with the grace of God, to even consider that the blessings and goodness of God transcends their own limited image of the holy.
Jesus begins his ministry among us with a new vision of God that strikes down the image of God as intolerant judge of wicked humanity and upholds the God of love and forgiveness, the God who is Father and Mother of every human being.
And the question for our lives, out of such a loving and generous God, how do we live our lives in word and deed to show such love and generosity to others?
Do we give such love like Blessed Solanus Casey, where people walk away and feel blessed or do they feel that we are like the homeowner or the wicked peasant, hoarding what we have, and failing to give generously as God had generously given to us. There are so many are hungry among us.
May we give generously like Jesus and open our hands and hearts to satisfy the needs of every living creature that we encounter. Amen.
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