Father Chris -Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time- Homily

​" The True Bread Of Life"

A young teenager has run away from home. They’re not sure why, and it’s the worst time do so, given the world is locked down in a pandemic. But all they know is that something is missing. A kind of loneliness and sadness fills their days which leaves them hungry for affection, acceptance and understanding among their peers, and a sense of where they’re going in life. They are seeking an answer to their hunger for love and direction, a hunger for hope in a seemingly hopeless world.  
 
Their mother is distraught. It has been three days and no word from their child. She tells herself many parents go through this. Her child just needs freedom to figure out who they are. The teen years are a difficult time for them. They’ll be fine. Yet, the mother knows something is missing in her life, in her family’s life, and perhaps in her child’s life. A kind of desperation and despair from too many commitments at work and at home are overwhelming her. She even experiences a kind of loneliness. Mainly, she seeks an answer to the hunger for peace which she so earnestly desires, peace from the monotony of her day-to-day life, freedom to enjoy more loving time with her husband and children. She is seeking something, but it’s not entirely clear what it is. And now her child is missing, and the pandemic has made it all the more difficult to search for them. She seeks an answer to her hunger for love and peace.
 
The father is also distraught, but also angry. Why now? Why did his child have to disappear at such a disastrous time when everyone is locked down and finding it difficult to do anything but sit and wait? A kind of frustration and exasperation fills his thoughts from hour to hour as he tries to stay focused on critical data entries. Later he will struggle to stay focused on the path of his tractor as he pulls up fresh furrows of soil for a new crop they decided to invest in on their hobby farm. But the stress keeps bearing down. Even a kind of loneliness pervades his thoughts. He seeks an answer to his hunger for freedom from the daily pressures of life, a freedom which could bring him closer to his wife and family and peace of mind, something he can believe and be confident in. He seeks an answer to his hunger for love, for truth, for freedom, his hunger for true faith in life. He would like to find this truth, this faith in life, to share it with his child. But he hasn’t had enough time for them. Now they have not come home for three days, and the search for them is made even more difficult by the barrier of an unexpected pandemic!  
 
Now, what might solve their dilemmas? Maybe by examining ourselves we might find some answers e.g. what are we seeking in life? Is it also true faith, peace, hope and love? Or do we hunger too much for material things far beyond the food on our plates: hungers for safety and security, for control of the environment, for wealth and prestige, importance and acknowledgement. Are we caught up in the material world forgetting that we are first ‘spiritual beings’ who need bread for our souls?
 
The crowd wants Jesus to perform more miracles, not understanding they must make the miracles happen for themselves in their own lives. Christ warns them that they must not seek to satisfy only their hunger for bread for the body, but for bread for the soul. Indeed, bread for the body is paramount for survival, but are we to fatten ourselves for slaughter at the end of life, or are we to satisfy our body’s basic needs, and then focus on feeding ourselves with the bread of life, bread for the soul, the bread which is Jesus Christ himself. This spiritual bread, our Lord, will clearly bring us peace, hope and love in full measure while we seek to live productive and caring lives in our earthly existence.
 
We must seek Christ first, and all else will be put in perspective and fall into place. Hope will emerge like a spiritual life-line during even the most difficult and challenging and frightening of times. Faith will reign triumphant, giving us unshakeable confidence in a God who is in control, watching over us always.
 
Above all, love will fill every crack and crevice of the foundation of our lives with spiritual, sacred energy. Love will hold every family together. Love will bind every wound, solve every issue, answer every question a teenager, a mother and father may have. Where there is love, there is peace and hope and true freedom. Where there is love there is light which will be the cement of in the building blocks of our lives, not darkness. The light of Christ will permeate our entire being, so much so, that the material needs and busyness of this world will not worry us like it used to.
 
Seek Jesus Christ, the Living Word of God, and he will satisfy all our hungers.
He can be found in the silence of prayer, in the doing of good works, and in the love and support we share with each other.                     
 
– Rev Fr Christopher Tracey, Saint Joseph Parish, Saugeen Shores, Ontario