My friends, once again, we continue this week to ponder Jesus, our brother, as the “bread of life.”  He tells us in John’s gospel that if we eat of this “bread” that he gives; we shall never die.  Now of course; we know that he isn’t speaking about our physical deaths, but our spiritual deaths, a death none of us, as his followers wants to experience.

In one of Jesus’ other sayings, he went on to expound, “I want you to have life and life in abundance!” Jesus, as we know, was always about “turning things on their heads,” so to speak, asking us to be counter culture, especially when, “following the crowd,” was demonstrative of fear, selfishness and safety, as opposed to openness, mercy, risk-taking for the good of all—simply put, the law to love.   And in this law to love, our own life is lived to the fullest.

The adjoining readings for this 19^th Sunday are instructive as well in how we should attempt to live out, the law to love.  We get a sense of the “bread of life” in each one and as last week, see that the “bread” we are called to give, can be physical, spiritual or emotional.

Elijah the prophet, in the first reading from Kings; we find in somewhat of a depressed state—he has been ministering for his God and is tired—bone-tired and wondering whether physical death might be a better option than what his life is at present.  We see his God responding as God always responds; with care and with love—one just has to have eyes to see! Elijah, through an angel is given food and water and rest, not only once, but twice and it is our God’s constant care that allows Elijah to continue his ministry.

Looking toward ourselves; we might say the same is true.  Our care for others must always include ourselves.  I practiced my advice this week by taking a day and a half at Assisi Heights for a mini retreat.  It was very good just to “hole up” as it were, have quiet time for reading and reflecting and I came away with gratitude for all the gifts of my life, as well as being renewed to continue all that God has in store.

Paul, in the second reading to the Ephesians simply tells us to spend no time on the negative emotions:  bitterness, rage, anger, or the negative actions of harsh, slanderous words and all other kinds of malice. We are instead instructed to be kind, compassionate and forgiving.  Simple to write down, yes, not always simple to do!

I read an interesting article this past week in the National Catholic Reporter in the Young Voices section.  The article was commenting on a new book, entitled, Daring Greatly, by Brene Brown wherein she argues that we should follow Jesus’ lead and become vulnerable.  She makes the point of saying that “being vulnerable” is not being weak as some might think.  Being vulnerable is being willing to say that you don’t have all the answers and being equally willing to listen to another’s thought or opinion to get closer to the truth for all of us.

Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians seems to be saying that we have to trust more that laying our hearts open as Jesus did will bring about the hoped for result quicker and more amiably than the alternative choice. In other words; we have to “walk in love” as did Jesus.

And for those who aren’t risk-takers, “question-askers,” or are satisfied to make-no-waves; the temptation to criticize those who do take risks, ask questions and make waves will always seem a viable choice.  It was so for Jesus as we saw in the gospel today, and it will be so for us too—“we know your mother and father,”—how dare you claim to be more than you are?

Most of you are aware that the Rochester Franciscan Sisters elected new leadership recently.  At their installation ceremony on July 1 each of the new community ministers reflected on one particular word from their chosen theme for their time in leadership, “Living from our common heart.”  For my purposes today; I will comment on just two of the reflections.

First, Sr. Jennifer Corbett reflected on the word, “from” in her comments.  She spoke of coming “from” South Bend, Indiana, that her father was “from” American Irish descent and that her mother came “from” France.  Additionally, she mentioned that she has an older sister, Mary, and a brother, Phil.  She stated that this is “her tribe,” so to speak, and that with these pieces of information; we might come to some conclusions about her, right or wrong, just as the people in Jesus’ time did about him.  She goes on to say that just as he couldn’t be confined by his humble beginnings, we too can’t fail to do what God may be calling us to because we, “don’t have the voice, the strength, the position”—whatever we may come up with as excuses for not doing our part!

The second reflection comes from Sr. Mary Eliot and her comments revolve around the word, “our” as in “Living from our common heart.”  She uses the word, “our” as a jumping-off place to speak about our (Sisters and Cojourners) origins, giftedness and our future together as Franciscans, followers of Francis and Clare of Assisi and states in no uncertain terms that in order for us to do our best, what God is calling us each to, our “interconnectedness” is going to be most important.  She describes most beautifully what she means by referencing the story of The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams.

Most of us recall that this is a story of a velveteen rabbit that becomes real through the love of a little child.  In the character of the Skin Horse, who is real, the rabbit learns what it is “to be real.”  “It’s a thing that happens to you when a child loves you for a long, long time…then you become real.”

The rabbit wants to know, “does it hurt?” The skin horse answers, “Sometimes, [but] when you are real, you don’t mind being hurt.”

The skin horse goes on to say that it doesn’t happen all at once, [becoming real] and it doesn’t happen to those who “break easily,” or have “sharp edges” or have to “be carefully kept.”  And by the time you are real, “most of your hair has been loved off, your eyes drop out, you get loose in the joints and very shabby.”  The skin horse concludes by saying that “those things don’t matter…because “once you are real you can’t be ugly except to people who don’t understand.”

Mary Eliot concluded her reflection saying that for her, “to be real is to love another into being.”  My friends, each of us is called like Elijah, like Jesus, like Paul, to be real, to love each other into being through our willingness to be trusting and understanding of others, even when we disagree. We may lose “our fur” like the skin horse, become tired like Elijah, misunderstood like Jesus, but in all of this; we will have the peace of knowing that like those who came before us, we have been faithful followers of our God, of our brother Jesus.  Amen? Amen!

 My friends, today as last Sunday; we continue contemplating the “bread of life” whom we know to be our brother, Jesus.  We get this truth from both the Old or First Testament of the Bible in the book of Exodus and in the New Testament, in Jesus’ words—Jesus of course brings the message to completion.

Exodus tells us, “This is the bread our God has given you to eat.” In John’s gospel we hear, “You shall not be working for perishable food, but for life-giving food that lasts for all eternity.”  John continues, “Jesus is the bread that Abba God gives,” in which, “we will not be hungry or thirsty.”

Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians carves out for us, Jesus’ followers, just what following him will mean, “You must stop living the kind of life the world lives,” or in other words, our life in Jesus calls us to more! It seems to be about living, “in the justice and holiness of the truth.”

The readings for this Sunday call each of us to consider how Jesus was “bread” for his world and of how we are called to the same.  Sometimes the “bread” we are called to give is of a purely physical nature—people are physically hungry and must in justice, be fed. For us who are blessed with having enough and to spare of physical bread, the solution might appear simple—share what we have and many of us do.  The initiatives through this parish help us to do that; contributing to The Winona Volunteer Services Food Shelf, our monthly meals to Bethany Catholic Worker House and our parish’s yearly commitment of time delivering Home Meals during the month of February.

In Jesus’ life, he started at this level as well to meet people’s basic needs, but it was always about bringing them to the next level—feeding people’s minds, hearts and spirits. People—humans, our sisters and brothers need more than food for their bodies—they need the “bread” of compassion, understanding, justice in their lives—this is the “more” that was at the heart of Jesus’ message.  We can’t just stop with feeding people’s physical bodies, important as that is; but we must strive to understand why people are physically hungry, why some have more than enough and to spare and others are left wanting.

In all the times when Jesus fed physically hungry people; he gave in abundance and this was to signify the over-the-top love of his Abba God for all of creation.  God’s generosity and faithfulness through Jesus to creation was always meant to show us the way—the goods of this earth are meant for all to enjoy and whatever it is in this world that causes some of us to live well while others suffer must most assuredly be addressed by Jesus’ followers if the full kin-dom is ever to be realized.

Obviously, our world’s people are not, as Paul suggests, living as we should or we would not have people physically starving to death; we would not have countries warring with each other; we would not have half the world’s population still living under the tyranny of patriarchy both in church and state; there would be the justice that allows individuals to live fully and freely the lives that God created and called them to live.  Gender, life-style choices, religious beliefs that call individuals to different, yet unique expressions of themselves and their God would not be impediments to hold them down, but gifts to be celebrated from the God of us all—from whom we are all, “so wonderfully made.

Now this is a bit of a depressing picture that I paint, but I see great hope in our world as people are stepping up and forward to do that which is theirs to do—all those who are ministering on our southern border to say that our country stands for more than greed and arrogance, fear and selfishness—that understands people running from war and unspeakable conditions, in their own countries, risking their lives and their children’s lives to come to a land that in the past has always stood for the rights of individuals to know peace, freedom and justice in their lives.

On a local level, several interfaith communities, including our own, have said “yes” to being a part of the Sanctuary Movement here, in the pursuit of a higher law.  Every time we reach out friends, moving with our hearts rather than our heads, attempting to do what may not be safe, but what is good and right and just; we are being faithful to our brother, Jesus’ call, as his followers.

You are aware that the 15^th season of the Great River Shakespeare festival in Winona finishes today.  We had the good fortune on Tuesday night to partake in the yearly production of Callithump as part of the festival.  Webster’s defines the word “callithump” as a noisy, boisterous band or parade.  The production of Callithump always comes near the end of the season of plays in order that those who have seen the separate plays will better understand the subtle jokes and spoofs presented within it.

I have always experienced this event in the past as a very fun night of the actors letting their hair down, so to speak, after all the fine work of the season and just enjoying each other as they continue to entertain their audience in a less-scripted way.

This year, there was that, but I noticed a concerted effort to uplift the women in the company expressing all their wonderful differences as individuals and most poignantly, in a final tribute to the cause of women expressed this past year in the #MeToo movement. Great River Shakespeare women flanked by all their male counterparts proclaimed their independence, their rightness to be, that, “enough was enough,” and that no matter what anyone had said or done, they were and are, terrific!

My friends, whenever any one of us is not respected, is put down for who and what they were created to be; we are all put down because we fail to be who God created us to be, who Jesus gave his life to protect, the very image of the divine.  We are all called not just to see that people receive the physical bread that they need, but the emotional and spiritual bread as well.  Amen? Amen!