Monday, June 13, 2005
LUKE 9:1-6
The prayer in today's first reading is the only prayer in the Book of Proverbs. It's a prayer that's quite appropriate for all of us who live in bondage to materialistic and consumerist values. For some of us, maybe we find it difficult to even imagine a world devoid of these spurious benefits.
The author of Proverbs prays that God will give him neither poverty nor riches. If we enjoy abundance, it's easy enough to relegate God to the periphery of our consciousness. If we suffer dire need, the pursuit of daily sustenance leaves little time and energy for the pursuit of spiritual values. In neither case can we maintain our life-focus on God, on his life within us, or on his identification with the marginalized, the oppressed and the poor.
Fr. Mark Link narrates a happening organized by some 175 syndicated cartoonists in the United States on Thanksgiving Day in 1985. These cartoonists presented to 90 million readers of about 2,000 newspapers an identical message: while we feast on plenty, many go hungry.
Fr. Link recalls the Peanuts' contribution. Linus asks Charlie Brown if he's going to have a big Thanksgiving dinner. Charlie replies, "I guess so, but I don't really think that much about food." Snoopy is listening in on the conversation. He looks down at his empty dish and remarks to himself, "You think about food a lot when there's nothing in your dish."
This, of course, is true. And Jesus was quite aware of the people's material needs when he sent his apostles out on their first missionary journey. Even though he instructed them to travel unencumbered, taking with them not even a change of clothes, he also instructed them to proclaim the reign of God (thus feeding the soul) and to heal the afflicted (thus recognizing that the body too has its needs).
We have to reach constantly for a balance. As missionaries the Lord obviously wants us to live a simple lifestyle and to mediate to others health of body and spirit.
The author of Proverbs prays that God will give him neither poverty nor riches. If we enjoy abundance, it's easy enough to relegate God to the periphery of our consciousness. If we suffer dire need, the pursuit of daily sustenance leaves little time and energy for the pursuit of spiritual values. In neither case can we maintain our life-focus on God, on his life within us, or on his identification with the marginalized, the oppressed and the poor.
Fr. Mark Link narrates a happening organized by some 175 syndicated cartoonists in the United States on Thanksgiving Day in 1985. These cartoonists presented to 90 million readers of about 2,000 newspapers an identical message: while we feast on plenty, many go hungry.
Fr. Link recalls the Peanuts' contribution. Linus asks Charlie Brown if he's going to have a big Thanksgiving dinner. Charlie replies, "I guess so, but I don't really think that much about food." Snoopy is listening in on the conversation. He looks down at his empty dish and remarks to himself, "You think about food a lot when there's nothing in your dish."
This, of course, is true. And Jesus was quite aware of the people's material needs when he sent his apostles out on their first missionary journey. Even though he instructed them to travel unencumbered, taking with them not even a change of clothes, he also instructed them to proclaim the reign of God (thus feeding the soul) and to heal the afflicted (thus recognizing that the body too has its needs).
We have to reach constantly for a balance. As missionaries the Lord obviously wants us to live a simple lifestyle and to mediate to others health of body and spirit.
# posted by F O O D F O R T H O U G H T @ 12:59 PM 
