Mass Readings Audio
https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/2021-07-25-usccb-daily-mass-readings
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – July 25, 2021
Welcome to the one hundred and seventy-fourth episode of By Your Life. I’m Lisa Huetteman and I know that you have a hundred different things you could be doing right now, so I thank you for choosing By Your Life.
My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular business world. It’s my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.
In this edition, we’ll reflect on the readings for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. (Year B)
Being Part of a Bigger Picture
“The Star Thrower”, an essay by Loren Eiseley, is a story that has been adapted and retold over the decades since it was first published in 1969. You’ve likely heard the story of the man walking along the beach who comes across a little boy (or a young woman, or another man, depending on which version you’ve heard) who is picking up starfish and throwing them back into the water. The old man asks, “Why are you throwing starfish back into the ocean?” The Star Thrower replies, “The sun is coming up and the tide is going out and if I do not throw them back, they will die.” “But” the old man argues, “Do you realize that there are miles and miles of beach with starfish all along it? You cannot possibly make a difference.” The Star Thrower listens politely, bends down, picks up another starfish, and throws it into the water, saying “It made a difference for that one.”
The Irish statesman, economist, and philosopher, Edmund Burke wrote, “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.” I think this advice sums the message from the story of the Star Thrower and from this Sunday’s readings.
In our first reading from the Second Book of Kings, the man from Baal-shalishah with twenty barley loaves objected when Elisha told him to give it to the people to eat. “How can I set this before a hundred people?” (2 Kgs 4:43) In our Gospel, when Jesus asked his disciples where they could get enough food for the crowd, Philip argued “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.” (Jn 6:7) Then Andrew said there was a boy with five barley loaves and two fish, but “What good are these for so many?” (Jn 6:9)
Scarcity Thinking
In general, I don’t think we are an uncaring people, but how often are we like the disciples, or the man from Baal-shalishah, or the old man walking on the beach, where we dismiss doing something small as meaningless so why bother doing anything at all. When we do, we are scarcity thinkers who can’t see the possibilities that God does. In our pride, we are reluctant to consider that we may only play a small part in a universal play. Even worse, in our lack of faith, we fail to consider that God has the answer to all our problems and all we have to do is our small parts.
In his book, Resisting Happiness, Matthew Kelly puts forth a true story about why we sabotage ourselves, feel overwhelmed, set aside our dreams, and lack the courage to simply be ourselves. In the chapter titled “When God Looks at a Résumé,” Matthew writes, “Have you ever wondered what God looks for on a résumé?… He askes only one thing of us. He can take care of the rest. It’s like what Jesus did with the five loaves and two fish. … The one thing God needs from you in order to launch you into mission is availability. … Make yourself available to God and incredible things will happen.”
Keep Going Back to Jesus
One morning about ten years ago, I was listening to the CD of Jeff Cavin’s study of the Gospel according to Matthew as I was driving to an appointment. At that time, I was feeling overwhelmed by what I had on my plate when Jeff began talking about the feeding of the 5,000. The details in Matthew’s gospel vary a little from John’s version that we heard on Sunday, but the story is essentially the same. In Matthew’s Gospel, the disciples approached Jesus and said, “This is a deserted place, and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.” Jesus said to them, “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.”
I’ll never forget what Jeff Cavins said because it had a profound impact on me and my life. He said, (and I’m paraphrasing), “Imagine being one of the disciples when Jesus said, ‘give them some food yourselves.’ How do you think they felt?” He went on, “Jesus instructed them to tell the people to recline in groups of 50 or 100. So, they went out and gathered the people in groups, and then went back to Jesus. ‘Now what?’ Jesus blessed the bread and fish and gave them some and told them to give it to the people. And so, with a couple of pieces of bread in their hands, they turned and looked at the hungry crowd, took what they had, went out to the people in the front row and gave it to them, and then went back to Jesus. And Jesus gave them some more which they took, gave to the next row, and then went back to Jesus. He gave them some more, and they distributed it and went back to Jesus, until everyone had their fill and there were twelve wicker baskets filled with the leftover fragments.”
Jeff Cavins continued. “Mother Teresa didn’t say to Jesus, ‘I don’t have a Master’s in Social Work. I can’t go into the slums of Calcutta to help these poor people.’ She just went and offered herself and kept coming back to Jesus. If Jesus can take this woman, who was not even 5’ tall, and through her found the Missionaries of Charity (which In 2020, it consisted of 5,167 religious sisters) who today help the sick and poor in over 140 countries, if Jesus can feed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish, imagine the miracles he can do with you and your life, if you just turn it over and make yourself available to him.”
When we are available to God, he doesn’t ask us for anything we don’t have and doesn’t leave us to go it alone. Being available is simply a matter of giving what you have, not what you don’t have, doing what you can, not what you can’t, being who you are, not who you aren’t. The disciples didn’t have 200 days’ wages to feed the people themselves, but they did have access to five barley loaves and two fish, and they made them available to Jesus. You don’t have to be perfect; you just need to be available. As Rick Warren said, “If God only used perfect people, nothing would get done. God will use anybody if you’re available.”
Stop Being a Doormat
There is something counter-cultural about making yourself available. Try googling “being available to others” and you’ll find a slew of quotes, videos, and images encouraging you to STOP being available to others. Search YouTube for “being available to others” and you’ll find videos with titles like: The Power of Being Unavailable, 6 Steps to Stop People Pleasing and Start Doing What’s Right for You, Stop Being Available, Undoing Mistakes of Always Being Available, and The Charms of Unavailable People. All of these availability experts are suggesting that if you become self-focused and stop being other-focused, you’ll increase your value in your relationships. I think they couldn’t be more wrong.
Now there may be some truth in recognizing the need to stand up for yourself and not allow others to take advantage of you. But there is a difference between being a doormat and being available. One is a win-lose scenario, and the other is a win-win. It is a paradox because being available means you are there for others, without expecting anything in return, and yet any simple act of generosity never goes unrewarded.
100 Percent Available
We never know what God has planned. Jeff Cavins had no clue how his CD was going to impact me that morning, but, God did. We never know how something we say or do can bless others, but God does. God puts people in our lives to help us. God put us in other people’s lives to help them. The man from Baal-shalishah and the young boy in the Gospel, were very important players in God’s miracles. Imagine being them. Are you willing to turn over what you have to the Lord? Are you willing to turn yourself over and make yourself 100 percent available to God?
Matthew Kelly writes in Resisting Happiness that there have been several times in his spiritual journey when he turned to God in a moment of reckless abandon and said, “Whatever you want, God. Everything is yours. I surrender to you completely. I will do whatever you want.” Then, with the perspective of time, he noticed a pattern. He prays this prayer but in the coming days, weeks, and months, he takes everything back from God, little by little.
He goes on, “It is time to stop resisting happiness, to stop resisting the joy of life-giving daily conversions. It is time to stop resisting God. Pray for grace. Ask God. Beg him to give you the wisdom, grace and humility to make yourself 100 percent available to him.”
Let’s pray and ask God to help us by praying Matthew Kelly’s prayer of transformation:
Loving Father, I come to you today to make myself 100 percent available to you. I lay everything I have and everything I am at your feet. Take what you want to take and give what you want to give. Command me in all things. I will do whatever you ask me to do. Transform me and transform my life so that I may become the-very-best-version-of-myself and lead others to you with my life and my love. Amen.
Now, as you were praying this prayer, what were the areas of your life that you were holding back? Are you turning your work life over to God, or are you reserving that for yourself? Are you turning your relationships over to God? What are you retaining for yourself to be in control of? Now, ask God to help you pray the transformation prayer again and make those parts of your life available to God too.
May God bless you abundantly as you make yourself 100 percent available to him and may you glorify the Lord by your life.
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