Well, these are wonderful summer readings because they are so easy. Reading after reading, the first reading, it’s just God inviting us to come to him, and he will bless us with an abundance. He will pour out his milk upon us. He will feed us with finest grain. If we’re hungry, he will feed us and there is going to be satisfaction. We will be filled and we will be satisfied. And, yet, sometimes there’s demands on us in life, and it seems like life can be too demanding or God can be too demanding or people in our lives can be too demanding or people in our leaves can be too demanding or our parents can be too demanding, or our spouses can be too demanding, or our kids can be too demanding. And sometimes we find that all we can do is go to God.
So one of my favorite summer songs I’m going to sing to you is “Lean on Me.” I need a few volunteers for this one. So I need actually pairs. So if I can have three or four pairs of you come forward and help me volunteer. I’m just going to give you some motions to do, and it’s going to help everybody else kind of get more out of the song. So, volunteers, come up.
Thank you. It’s not going to be too bad. I’ll walk you through it all. We’ve got one, two, three. I need one more group. How about if you guys stand right at the corners. Can you stand right up here at the corner? That’s good. One more group. One more pair of two. Come on up. That would be so much better.
All right, good. Thank you.
So all you got to do is for the chorus. The rest of the part you can watch me or dance, or whatever you want to do. But here is the chorus: Lean on me. So how do you do that? Lean on your partner. I need a partner, actually. Somebody come up here and lean on me. Lean on me like that. Good.
When you’re not strong. Show us your biggest muscle arms, which way to the beach.
I’ll be your friend. Turn to your partner and high five them. Got it?
I’ll help you carry on. And then this is kind of like the pun part. For, five. So for, five. So just for, five. Got it?
It won’t be long. And then you go too short and get short.
‘Til I’m going to need — elbow. Like a little pun there. Elbow.
Somebody to lean on. Okay, got it?
We will try it once. Ready?
Lean on me when you’re not strong. I’ll be your friend — high five — I’ll help you carry on. Raise that roof. For — five — it won’t be long — too short — ’til I’m going to need — elbow — somebody to lean on.
All right, that’s good. I think we need a little bit of clapping, though. Hey, Carl, can you hit up some clapping for everybody? Follow Carl’s lead, okay.
Ready?
Sometimes in our lives, we all have pain, we all have sorrow. But, if we are wise, we will know that there’s always tomorrow. Lean on me when you’re not strong. I’ll be your friend — high five — I’ll help you carry on. Raise that roof. For it won’t be long — too short — until I’m going to need somebody to lean on. Please, swallow your pride if I have things you need to borrow. For no one can fill all of our needs that you don’t let show. Here we go.
Lean on me when you’re not strong. I’ll be your friend, I’ll help you carry on. Raise that roof. For — five — it won’t be long — too short — ’til I’m going to need — elbow — somebody to lean on. Just call on me, brother, when you need a hand. We all need somebody to lean on. I just might have a problem that you’ll understand. We all need somebody to lean on.
Yeah. Give them a round of applause. I love that the people in the cry room were doing that. That was an awesome. Thank you.
So, you know, that’s all we’ve got to do is come to God and lean on him. What I love about the Gospel is it’s one of my favorites, you know, the multiplication of the loaves. This miracle where Jesus feeds the five thousand people. I actually got to be on that mountain in the Holy land when we did our pilgrimage, to be where they fed this five thousand people and to work that miracle. What I love about it, he has this interaction with the disciples, okay.
So Jesus, first of all, he’s in a tough place himself. He’s going through a pretty tough time. So the Gospel begins with the beheading of John the Baptist. His best friend, John the Baptist, who he grew up with, has been beheaded at another celebration, another party. He’s been beheaded, and Jesus finds out about this news. And so he goes off on the boat by himself to a deserted place. He just wants to be alone. But guess what? The crowds are upset too, and the crowds are needy, and the people are anxious because of John the Baptist. So they go and find Jesus in his deserted place. They won’t leave him.
Now Jesus, instead of getting upset and going further away on his boat, or whatever, he actually comes back to the people, climbs up the mountain, gathers all of these five thousand around him, and he begins to teach them. And it’s getting late. It’s getting dark. So the disciples realize this, okay, and they say, “Lord, it’s getting late and this is a deserted place. We better send these people home to their villages and let them go get something to eat themselves.” And Jesus said to his disciples, “Why don’t you feed them?” And he puts them in this place of, you know, he’s saying why don’t you feed them. Then the disciples react much like we would. “But, Lord, I can’t feed them. All I have are these five loaves and two fish.” And so what does Jesus say to them then? Does anybody know in the Gospel. The disciples say, “We can’t do it. All we’ve got are these five loaves and two fish.” And Jesus says what? “Bring them to me.” Very good. “Bring them to me.”
You know, sometimes life can be demanding of us. Sometimes our work can be demanding of us. Sometimes our families can be demanding of us. Sometimes we can be demanding of ourselves. And sometimes we just feel like we don’t have enough to do. We don’t have enough energy or enough time or enough resources. And yet Jesus is saying, “You can do it. Feed them. Take care of your family. Take your of your loved ones. Take care of your parents who are old. Feed them.” But if we find ourselves getting frustrated, if we find ourselves getting tired, if we find ourselves getting spiritually burnt out, we’re missing something. And what is that something? We’ve got to bring it to Jesus. We’ve got to bring whatever that situation is, whoever those people are, whatever the demands are, whatever our inadequacies are, whatever we think we can’t do with the resources that we have, bring it to Jesus. It’s that simple.
If you’re frustrated, if you’re tired, if you’re upset, it’s probably because you are doing it alone. It’s probably because you haven’t brought it to Jesus. Because when we do bring whatever it is to Jesus, our littleness or our weakness or our smallness, we bring it to him, he does bless it and transform it. And before you know it, not only do we have enough to do whatever we’re doing, but he gives us an abundance.
And that’s why we come to the Eucharist.
You know, every mass the gifts are brought forward, the gifts of bread and wine. That’s our presentation. So just like the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus said to the disciples, “All you have are five loaves and two fish? I don’t care. We’re going to work with that. Bring it to me.” And right now he says to you, whatever you have, if you feel like it’s not enough, if you feel like you can’t meet the demands of life, if you feel like you don’t have everything that you need, bring it to me. Let me transform it and change it and multiple it. And before you know it, you are going to have far more than you could have ever imagined.
And so that’s what I want you to do in a few moments, when the gifts and bread and wine are brought forward, I want you to try to imagine whatever your loaves and fish are, whatever the smallness that you have to work with — maybe it’s money, maybe you feel like you don’t have enough money right now in your life, maybe it’s energy, maybe you are so tired, maybe it’s time, maybe you feel look you don’t have enough time or resources or friendship or emotional support — whatever it is that you don’t feel that you have enough of, I just want you to imagine placing it with the bread and wine and letting it be brought to the Lord. And as the priest places it on the altar and transforms it, God’s going to work a miracle in your life. He’s going to change all of that into a great abundance. But you have to bring it to him. You know, just like the song “Lean on Me,” when there are times in life that we can’t carry on, that we can’t do it alone, we do have to lean on God and on each other.
So you’re invited to do that in just a few moments. The offertory is not just about those two or three people that bring forward the gifts. All of us lay our gifts at the offertory. Our five loaves, the two fish, whatever it is that we need transformed into abundance, place those with the gifts. Let them be brought to the altar. Bring them to Jesus and watch as he works a miracle in your life. Whatever you thought you didn’t have enough of, all of a sudden there is going to be an abundance. And not only will you be satisfied, but all of those that you are trying to take care of will be satisfied. That’s the miracle of today’s Gospel and that’s the miracle that we receive in the Eucharist.
