HOMILYJesus is tired and so he retreats to a secluded place to try and find some respite. But when he arrives at this supposedly solitary place he comes across a large crowd who are there waiting for him and he is moved by them. Perhaps we feel sorry for Jesus. I am about to go on holiday to a secluded place and Jean-Jacques is the only person who knows where it is so, if I find a lot of people there I will know who to blame! I'm not at all sure that I will feel much compassion for those people.
For the simple fact that Jesus looks upon the crowds and sees their hardships, his plans suffer a complete reversal. If we allow ourselves to be moved by people and let their problems and needs affect us then our lives also will suffer a radical about face. Our plans will all come tumbling down.
Felicísimo Martínez says of Saint Dominic that his was an "open-eyed spirituality". Dominic's eyes were always open to what was happening around him and this forced him to take people's needs into account. Dominic loved books and wanted to study but, when he saw the great need of the starving people in Palencia he sold his books so that they could eat. He undertook a journey to the north of Europe with his bishop to arrange a royal marriage. Dominic could probably have looked forward to a brillant diplomatic career but he saw that the poor people of the south of France were confused by heresy and he decided to give up his life for them.
Jesus is vulnerable to the needs of the masses. He observes their needs and his response is immediate. This sort of vulnerability is dangerous. It can turn our lives completely upside down. It cost Jesus his life. That is why the first thing that the Gospel invites us to do is to dare to see. Are we capable of taking the risk of seeing the needs of our friends? When they are disheartened and sad do we pretend not to see? Do we dare to see the needs of our ageing parents or do we worry about what they might ask for and what we might not want to give? Do I risk opening my eyes to see the people in the street: the poor and the needy? If I do so my life could change totally.
Tomorrow Javier is going to do something decisive. He will put his hands in the hands of the provincial and he will give his life to the Order. Putting your hands in the hands of another is extremely dangerous because we don't know what they might do with us. What Javier will do is promise to be vulnerable. He will be vulnerable to the decisions of his brothers who may ask him to travel very far: to China, to Korea or maybe even to convert some heathen English! He will promise to make an effort to live the same vulnerability as Jesus, who dared to see the masses and had compassion for them. Javier, my dear brother, you had better prepare yourself because your plans also will one day be turned upside down! At this moment you cannot know what will be expected of you in the future.
This vulnerability is really very dangerous and we will only be able to take this risk if we believe what Saint Paul tells us in the second reading:
"Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."
Saint Paul is really telling us that it doesn't matter much what happens, no matter how terrible. At certain moments we might feel that our life is a failure, that we are alone or betrayed, even by our brothers and sisters. None of this has any importance because nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Javier, do you believe this? Do you really believe it? I only believe it sometimes myself and I ask the Lord to help me to believe it more.
There are, on the other hand, brothers of ours who believe it without reservation, totally, unto death. Just when I was reflecting on this homily the news reached Santa Sabina of the murder of our brother Pierre Claverie, the bishop of Oran in Algeria and a son of the French province...
The disciples saw the needs of the masses but what could they do? Those people were hungry. Who was going to feed them? Jesus says something then which surprises the disciples: "You give them something to eat! What, you only have five breads and two fishes? Well that's all you need! That's more than enough!
To open our eyes and see the needs of the masses could truly be very disconcerting. Not only can it change my whole life but it could also make me despair about not knowing what to do or not being able to do anything! If I really manage to see the suffering of my friends, family, colleagues and the poor would I not also be tempted to despair of not having anything to offer them?
Sometimes when I visit my friends or my brothers in their convents I catch a glimpse of a deep thirst, a desire for something that I can't quite put my finger on. And I have felt the temptation to run away. At times I have wanted to cover my eyes and ears and say to them, "That's enough! Be quiet! Don't tell me any more, I don't want to listen! I have nothing to give you! However, Jesus tells us, "Give what you have. That is enough. You don't need any more.
When we see the suffering and need in our world we turn towards God and we ask him to do something. He surely will. But the answer to my plea might well be all of you. The reply might even be myself! This particular bible story that we have just heard is the story of a blessing. Jesus proclaims a blessing and the fruit of this blessing is that those same disciples become capable of giving much more than they could have imagined.
Last October I was with Jean-Jacques in Canada. We visited a community directed by one of our brothers. It was a community of drug addicts, ex-prisoners and tramps. They were all people that society didn't give twopence for. Society would rather not see these rough, violent people who have no future. But one of our brothers, Jean-Louis Morin, dared to see them and to welcome them into his community. The first thing that I thought when Jean-Jacques and I were with them was, "How is it possible that this man, who is now quite old, is capable of finding enough (and indeed more than enough) to give to these people? Jean-Louis has Parkinson's disease and, even so, he was working away. How can he deal with so many needs? Jean-Louis' blessing lay in his ability to get the best out of everybody; to get them to give what little they had. And they all shared their particular gifts. One was a skilled carpenter, another an exquisite cook, yet another had the gift of good humour and, finally, there was one who had the grace to be able to console others in their sorrow. With God's blessing all of those people had more than enough, just like us. Jean-Louis' gift, his blessing, lay in helping others to give of what they had.
And when this feast is over there are still twelve baskets full of leftovers. When God grants his gifts he does it with such superabundance that he satisfies our needs many times over. This generosity of his is total madness. It cannot be quantified. God is like an Italian "mamma" who makes such a huge meal for her children when they come home that, when they are all full from just eating the pasta, there are still five more courses waiting for them in the kitchen!
This generosity is characteristic of God. He always gives to the point of insanity. You only have to look at creation. When God created the beetles he didn't want just one species. He had the idea of making hundreds of thousands of species; infinitely more beetles than we could ever need! He also made hundreds of species of grapes, hundreds of species of trees. All of creation is a testimony to the exuberant generosity of God.
Would that we could match God's crazy generosity! If we give something to others let us not calculate what is strictly necessary. Let us learn to give without measure, without counting the cost to ourselves.
Javier, tomorrow we want to think specially of you. Tomorrow you will give your life to the Order, to go and preach the Gospel. May your giving of yourself be unconditional. May it too be a crazy gift without calculations or reservations, like Jesus' gift when he said to his disciples, "Take and eat. This is my Body which is given up for you. I give it all for you, without reservations and for all time."
Pierre Claverie's words:
"The Church fulfils its vocation and mission when it is to be found present where humanity has become disjointed; where its flesh is crucified. Jesus died hanging between heaven and earth with his arms outstretched to reunite all God's children dispersed by sin, closed in on themselves and fighting with each other and even with God himself. Jesus placed himself in the epicentre of this tragic rupture which comes from sin. Here in Algeria we are right on the seismic faults which crisscross the whole world: Islam and the West, North and South, rich and poor. This is exactly where we should be because it is here that the Resurrection light can shine forth."