July 28, 2021
Editor’s note: This homily for July 25, 2021 was originally published on Fr. Mark-David’s Facebook page.
Miracles do not come with instructions.
There are no “how to” manuals:
Connect part A to Part B in slot C and so on.
Scripture does not indicate that
Moses knew how to part the Red Sea,
Elijah knew how to feed 100 people,
Or Jesus knew how 5 loaves and 2 fish would feed thousands;
Or, for that matter, how bread would become his body
And wine become his blood.
What scripture does say about miracles is this:
They all start by noticing that people are suffering.
The enslaved seeking dignity,
The ill seeking healing,
the hungry seeking food,
those prone to feeling abandoned,
seeking company and communion.
Miracles begin when, seeing as God sees,
Someone, Moses, Elijah, Jesus,
Does what God wills for suffering people.
There is no indication they know how-
They do know they must, in God’s name, do it.
The second thing scripture says about miracles
Is that there are plenty of practical people
Who know that it cannot be done.
“How can you escape Pharoah’s chariots?”
How can I set twenty loaves before a hundred people?
How can you walk on water?
How can you give sight to a man blind from birth?
How can five loaves and two fish feed so many?
How can anyone forgive sin?
Interestingly, frustratingly,
These questions are never answered.
Skeptics are only told to make a start
To do what little they can with the little they have.
I understand the skeptics,
I have been taught to look at reality with a critical eye.
There are millions, millions of children
Hungry every day.
Most of the world has no access to vaccine of any kind.
The planet is suffering from a pollution so universal
Its atmosphere so degraded,
Fires rage, droughts deepen, ice caps melt,
Species God created, are made extinct.
The fabric of our country is torn in dispute
The Body of Christ, His Church,
Lacks the gentleness, patience,
The ability to bear with one another with love,
As St. Paul bids us do.
I do not know how to work miracles,
Even if I had two hundred days wages,
It would not be enough.
Not knowing how to do a miracle
Is no excuse for not doing one.
Miracles begin when, seeing as God sees,
Someone, Moses, Elijah, Jesus, you and me,
See suffering, and walk towards the hurting
rather than walking away,
bringing our five loaves and two fish, or,
or whatever little we have,
and do with it, as God would do
for suffering people, a suffering Church, a suffering planet.
“This is my body for you, my blood, for you”
And without knowing how,
Wounded hearts are encouraged,
Weakened hearts empowered,
Lonely hearts, befriended.
Joined to the Risen Christ,
We know no more than did he, how miracles happen.
We only know, to do what he did:
See suffering, and walks towards, not away,
Bringing whoever we are and whatever we have
To do God’s will for them. Amen.