XVIII Sunday Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Is 55:1-3
Ps 145
Rom 8:35, 37-39
Mt 14:13-21

"Separation and Sandwiches"
(Farewell homily to St. Joseph's)

As St. Paul writes today in Romans, “What will separate us from the love of Christ?” He is convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor present or future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any creature will be able to separate us from the love of God. Nothing. Not-a-thing. Nothing will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Wow….just wow. I mean really? Really?!? Nothing!? I guess we’re done here. There’s no need to go to Mass, we don’t need to go to confession; we don’t need to really pray or do anything because we are all going to heaven. Why are we even still here? Why bother? I can go back to the rectory and throw some meat on the grill and eat until we have a coronary or the second coming; you know… whichever comes first.

But seriously, “What will separate us from the love of Christ?” I have looked at this passage for years trying to find something that would separate us from the love of Christ. St. Paul pretty much covers everything that I could think of. But I’ve come to the conclusion that if there really is anything at all that would separate you from the love of Christ, it is probably…yourself; because God is always faithful, and we are not, we sin and fall short all the time. But I’ve also come to the conclusion that if you’re looking for things that will separate you from the love of Christ, then you’ve got it all wrong.

Why are we looking for things to separate us from the love of Christ when we should be looking for things that would bring us closer to the love of Christ?!?! Why would I ever want to separate myself from Him or even stay just where I am? Today’s first reading and the gospel give us an insight: What will unite us to the love of Christ? The answer is, and happens to be one of my favorite topics of discussion is: food. “All you who are thirsty, come to the water…” “you who have no money, come receive grain and eat… come without paying… drink wine and milk… come to me heedfully and listen that you may have life.” You will only be united to the love of Christ if you are starving and thirsting for Him.

If you’ve ever wondered why the Church requires that you fast – that is no food or drinks, except water – for one hour before receiving communion, this is why: It’s not because Holy Mother Church wants to give you a hard time and torture you by denying you that morning donut while you’re driving your family to church. The whole purpose of the fast is so that when we receive our Lord in the Eucharist, we are not only spiritually starving for Him, but also PHYSICALLY starving for Him!
After a long week of laboring for the Lord in your families and wherever you are in the world, you should be tired, and starving – thirsting for the word of God, hungering for the Eucharist. And you know what? Nothing delights a starving man, like myself, more than that first delicious bite of food… a pizza or a huge sandwich perhaps – even if it’s a Reuben sandwich, it would still be pretty tasty if I was starving. 

Nothing could separate the people from following after Jesus, and Jesus was moved for the people. Jesus could not even get away; wherever He went, they would catchup! They were hungering for Him, relishing at His every word, and followed Him even as he was trying to get away to mourn the loss of John the Baptist. People came to Him from all over and it was getting late in a place with no food to be found close by. It was evening and the crowds were getting overwhelming. There was no food, no sandwiches, nothing – the people were starving and their faces showed it. The disciples knew that things were going to go awry if the soured crowd didn’t have anything to eat. Looking out at the thousand islands of people sitting out there on the grass you could see them all STARVING… the task of feeding all these people was simply daunting – and there were no sammiches to be found!

Jesus told His disciples not to send them away, but to feed the people. But with what? Lettuce not forget that they had no corned beef or pastrami or anything like that; all they had were five loaves and two fish. All the twelve disciples could mustard up was only five loaves and two fish between them – not a gouda situation. Jesus took the loaves and fishes and said the blessing and distributed to His disciples who in turn distributed it out to the crowd. The crowd was fed and they ended up with twelve baskets full of leftovers.

What I found so interesting about the feeding with the loaves and fishes was how it was done. The hungry disciples had to go to Christ first, offering up the food to the Father in the blessing, and then receive the food from Christ in order to feed the other people. If you think this out… when the disciples ran out of the food in their hands, they had to go back to Christ to get more. And so they constantly went back and forth between Christ and the vast multitude of people; until everyone was full. Isn’t that just like the Mass? We must come to Christ first to be fed and so that we can feed others.

The food comes ultimately from the Lord and we go back to Him when the food runs out. If the people are hungry, we are hungry and what does that mean? We go back to the Lord. What does our responsorial psalm say today? “The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.”

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, but in our Gospel the mediators of that love of Christ are the disciples the future apostles, the future bishops, priests and deacons, and it also includes every one of you. You are the hands and feet of the Lord feeding the crowd, but you need to be hungry and thirsty yourself.
Everything that the disciples have, they give it to the Lord in order to feed His countless flock. It would be no great miracle if the disciples already had plenty of loaves and fishes. The miracle is in the Lord using what little they had to bring about great and miraculous things.

As you may already know this is my last weekend here at St. Joseph’s. I am returning back to St. Mary’s Seminary in Houston and finishing my very last year of studies. Next year, God willing, I will be ordained to the priesthood on June 2nd. I want to publicly thank Bishop Doug Deshotel, Fr. Timothy Heines, Fr. Alfonse Nazzaro, Dcn. Randy Engle, and the entire St. Joseph Parish staff for their mentoring, their patience, and the many opportunities they have given me to help me become a better deacon and a future priest to serve the people of the Diocese of Dallas. All of you at St. Joseph have been so warm and welcoming, and I want to thank you for the tremendous love and hospitality that you have shown me.

I have only been here for a short period of time and yet there are so many of you. I have tried to offer what little I have being a baby deacon and young in years. And if the little “Reuben sandwiches” that I have offered seemed to be overflowing twelve wicker baskets for you, then all the praise, honor, and glory be to our Lord Jesus Christ. He is truly the one that works the miracle of the loaves because he so earnestly desires to feed us with the bread of finest wheat – His own Body and Blood.

So I ask again what I asked at the beginning: “What will separate us from the love of Christ?” Truly? Nothing will separate us from the love of Christ other than ourselves and our desire for Him. But remember that we should not be asking what will separate us from the love of Christ, but rather we should be seeking to find out what will unite us to the love of Christ. Only when we are hungering for God, only when we are starving for him – will we be united to Him. When He gives us Himself to eat in the Holy Eucharist, He will unite us to Himself – and we will never separate ourselves from Him if we are always hunger for Him.