July 29, 2012: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

A few weeks back, I was in the living room of a parishioner’s home and I was surrounded by 25 ladies who had come to hear a presentation on the spiritual devotion called “Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary.” I explained to the ladies that Mother Teresa and all her sisters practiced this total entrustment to Jesus through Mary. It is amazing what great fruits came forth from this diminutive nun’s life. She established her religious order—with familiar blue and white striped saris—with no money. Now there are over 4500 sisters in 133 countries. From our practical dollars and sense point of view, this was an impossible feat. How can this be explained? Today’s gospel will offer us a glimpse into this mystery.
In the Gospel passage, the Lord and his disciples had reclined on a mountainside and were surrounded by a crowd of a thousand people. The great crowd had followed the Lord there, not in faith, not in love, but out of curiosity and in the self-seeking expectation of further signs. They already had seen the wonders Jesus performed on those who were sick. They were there at the mountain as if they were detached spectators of an event that does not affect and concern them in their own internal lives. And yet by miracles they had seen previously, their curiosity was stirred that prompted them to ask, “Can this Jesus do something for me?” Jesus, sensing all this and also knowing that the crowd was hungry, asked Philip, "Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?"

Jesus said this to test Philip, because Jesus himself knew what he was going to do. And Philip seeing the impossibility of this question replied, "Two hundred days wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.'" All they had among them was five barley loaves and two fish that a little boy had.
We face this kind of impossible tasks every day, where we see a problem but do not have resources to help. The other day, a lady called me to explain that in our neighborhood is a widow who is living in a trailer with a blue tarp on the roof.  The woman’s husband died right before completing their brick house across the street from their trailer. She asked if I could find a way to finish the brick house so that the widow could move in. In my mind, I was thinking like Philip. Where would I get thousands of dollars of labor and materials to accomplish that? Mother Teresa also faced this kind of impossible request personally from Jesus. She was living in a comfortable convent in Calcutta, teaching children of wealthy Indian families, but whenever she went outside the convent, she was saddened to see abject poverty and hunger that surrounded the whole city. She saw the need, but she was overwhelmed just as Philip was overwhelmed by a crowd of a thousand who could not be fed with what he had. And this is when Mother Teresa had a series of visions of Jesus that would change her life.
In the first vision, Mother Teresa saw the painful plight of the poor and yet greater inner poverty that was hidden beneath their material poverty. They were all reaching out to her. In the second vision, she saw the same crowd of the poor…Our Lady was there in the midst of them and Mother Teresa was kneeling at her side; she heard Blessed Mother say: "Take care of them…they are mine…bring them to Jesus…carry them to Jesus…fear not…teach them to say the rosary…the family rosary, and all will be well…fear not…Jesus and I will be with you and your children." In the third vision was the same crowd again and they were covered with darkness. There in the midst of an anguished crowd that seemed unaware of His presence, was Jesus on the Cross. Our Lady was before Him…and Jesus said to Mother Teresa: "I have asked you…she, My Mother has asked you. Will you refuse to do this for me…to take care of them, to bring them to Me?"

When Mother Teresa left her religious order to establish another religious order, she was alone and her hands were empty. She was given no money, no building, and no sisters. All she had was her heartfelt “Yes” to Jesus. She totally consecrated to God all of her gifts, talents, and her will. She entrusted her entire self to God. And somehow, God took her “yes” and multiplied it thousand fold, just as Jesus multiplied five barley loves and two fish to feed a crowd of a thousand. We may think that our “yes” to God is small, but to God, nothing is small. The moment we say “yes,” God makes it infinite. Our hands will become like Philip whose hands handed out countless number of bread and fish to those who are hungry for God; and we will be amazed as Philip was amazed, that our empty hands became God’s instrument to bring something beautiful for Him.