Aug.18,2009: Tuesday of 20th Week Ordinary (B)
If you had $100 to prepare a dinner for 5 tonight, what would be on your menu, perhaps steak or salmon on the grill, salad with vinaigrette dressings, and lemon-meringue pie? A couple of years ago, a group of 5 seminarians from Uganda who were studying at the Notre Dame Seminary were given $100 to go out and eat. They instead chose to BBQ. They procured six-pack of beer, some chips, BBQ sauce, and a live kid goat. Someone slaughtered it and put it on the BBQ grill with all the entrails and all. I know many of you are frowning. If I was given that money, I’ll go out and get few pounds of raw salmon and tuna and make sashimi and sushi. I’m sure you’ll frown on that, too. Perhaps we don’t appreciate that in Uganda, a kid goat is valuable livestock for a family.
When we heard from today’s 1st Reading, we probably missed a little sentence which said, “Gideon went off and prepared a kid and a measure of flour in the form of unleavened cakes.” What’s happening here? You have the Midian army plundering harvest from Israelites and Gideon is trying to hide some of his harvest from them. And then he receives a call from God to be the very person to deliver Israelites from Midian army. God tells him,"Go with the strength you have and save Israel from the power of Midian. It is I who send you." But he answered him, "Please, my lord, how can I save Israel... I am the most insignificant in my father's house…If I find favor with you, give me a sign that you are speaking with me.” This is where the kid goat comes in. Even when food is scarce, Gideon offers as a sacrifice a kid goat which is probably one of the most valuable things he owns. This was an act of faith; he offers up his livelihood and sustenance hoping that God may give him the grace to carry out what God called him to do. By that act of sacrifice, Gideon was freed from the fear of undertaking new direction.
At the time I was leaving the company that I was working for and was about to enter Notre Dame Seminary, I had to give away all that I owned in a small house that I rented. I drove to the Salvation Army and dropped off everything. Everything I owned had to fit in a single 12x20 seminary room. My mom is still upset that I gave away her prized Corning brand cookware set that she lent me. But that giving away was necessary for me to not look back. Some of us here may be called by God to a new direction after losing a job, losing our savings, or our relationships. What is God asking you to offer up and let go in order to undertake that new direction? May God give us the grace to free us from fear and freely embrace the new road that He set before us.
