Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I've spent the past several weeks overseas for work - and so I wasn't home when I learned of the devastating tornadoes that hit the Miami Valley; my neighbors hosted a trash clean up day for our mailman, who lost his house, and I couldn't make it for that. I also couldn't bring my family along with me, so I wasn't home for them either, for their doctors' appointments and end of school gigs. Coming home has been wonderful in all kinds of ways, but it's also been overwhelming, because there is now -as ever - so much need, so many places I could be, so many things I could be doing for love of God and neighbor.
Even if I hadn't been gone for a while, I might have felt overwhelmed. It's hard to look at the media today and not be utterly struck by the enormity of problems that we face, and all the people and places we could be helping. Then, at least for me, that feeling of enormity leads me to feel petrified, unable to do anything.
Today's scriptures can help us to think, not of "Big Problems," but of the people, places, and the day itself that is before us. By focusing on who is before us, we can then carry out our discipleship. Or, as I indicated in the title, "discipleship snacks" - small acts that enable us to share God's presence.
Consider today's first reading (Exodus 11:10-12:14). We remember that the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, and today's first verse reminds us that Pharaoh is refusing to let them go free. It is a heavy situation for the Israelites. Yet what today's scriptures offer are step-by-step instructions for receiving the Lord's grace in their lives - first through the Passover meal, when God will move through the city and strike down the first born sons, and then through the Red Sea to freedom. The instructions are straightforward and simple: prepare a lamb; be sure to wear traveling clothes. The instructions do not say: worry about the next forty years, hedge your bets, think about all the things that might go wrong.
In today's Gospel (Matthew 12:1-8), the disciples are similarly responding to the day before them. They are hungry, there is grain, and they eat. While the naysayers worry about the symbolism of eating unlawfully on the Sabbath, Jesus suggests a different path: mercy. Mercy is the path of being concerned about the people and events directly in front of you. Is someone hungry? Then they need food. Notice that Jesus is not making it acceptable always and everywhere to not practice observing the Sabbath - but that the practice of mercy might mean sometimes we meet God in a different way.
Today, my prayer is to see the opportunities for "discipleship snacks" in our midst, in our world that so much needs the witness of God's love
- Jana M. Bennett