We should take time to reflect on the ways God has been faithful to His promises, and examine how we can do that for others
In order to take in the fullness of the wisdom offered to us in the Scriptures readings for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we should probably begin with the difference between wants and needs. There are some things that must be present in our lives for us to continue to exist. Those are considered our needs. Beyond that, there are things that we desire but are not necessary for our existence. Those are our wants. The difficulty is that we are so used to having both our needs and our wants satisfied that we begin to believe we are entitled to both. It was never the promise of God that both our wants and needs would be taken care of.
We need shelter, food and hydration and some level of security and belonging. All of those are promised to us by God, but we might have become spoiled along the way by the gracious lives that we have been given. We might begin to believe that we deserve luxury and convenience. Just walk through a grocery store and head toward the cereal aisle. When God said that our needs would be met, do you think God meant 400 different types of cereal? Knowing the difference between these wants and needs is essential if we are ever to move beyond our false insecurities and be able to respond to Jesus’ invitation to be His disciples.
It might be good during this week, either individually or as a family, to take some time around the dinner table to reflect on the ways that God has fed you during that particular day. Meal time is a great time to acknowledge the food that is placed before us. I’m hoping we all acknowledge that it wasn’t simply hard work that brought us to this point in life. Some people work the same amount of hard labor in a different neighborhood or country and do not have the same feast placed before them every single meal. It is an accident of birth, whether it is the country in which we were born or the zip code in which we live, but there is a difference. Take some time to acknowledge how God has been faithful to each of us and provides for all of our needs. It isn’t just how good we are or how hard we work that allows our life to be the way it is. Take plenty of time to do this for ourselves and our family, because if we’re not able to do this, then we are simply incapable of taking the next step.
I laugh at myself when I consider my response to God’s invitation to feed others as I have been fed. I don’t have a good history in this area of my life and sometimes even today I fail badly. I was blessed to grow up in a school where we were reminded that we had a responsibility to share with others what we ourselves have been given. Sometimes that was in the form of a mission carnival, which always meant we collected our pennies and not our nickels dimes or quarters. I remember when we were asked to give food donations for those who were hungry. I would sort through our scantily stocked kitchen cupboard and find the lima beans. I wanted to give them away because I did not like how they tasted, not out of the generosity of my heart. Even today, when given the opportunity to be generous with another human being, my first step is sometimes to judge whether they deserve it rather than their dignity as a human being.
One step follows another and sometimes it’s four steps forward and two steps back. Keep walking the path of discipleship, seeking to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
