Homily for 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 25, 2021

 Today's readings can be found here.

            Who likes taking tests?  I’m sure very few of us do.  Tests can cause us great anxiety and stress, especially if they’re planned.  But what is the purpose of a test?  Of what benefit are they to us?  Certainly, there’s not a lot of benefit to the person giving the test.  In most situations, the test giver’s role is simply to grade you and let you know how you’ve done.  The person that actually benefits from a test is the person taking it.  A test helps the test taker to evaluate their knowledge on a given subject.  Even the tests in our lives benefit us by helping us to learn new skills, gain understanding, and deepen relationships.

            It is the same with tests we undergo from God.  God does not benefit in any way by testing us.  After all, God needs nothing.  God tests us to help us realize the depth of our faith at the time of the test.  Today’s readings are all about tests.  In our first reading, a man is asked to feed one hundred people with twenty barley loaves.  He is understandably upset.  How could he possibly put such a small amount of food before so many people?  If you do the math, that’s one loaf of bread for five people.  Growing up in an Italian household with five people, a single loaf of bread barely made it as an accompaniment to the meal!

            Paul writes the letter to the Ephesians from prison.  He’s endured many trials in preaching the Gospel, from lack of food and shelter to beatings to imprisonment.  And in the Gospel, Jesus asks Phillip to feed five thousand people with just FIVE loaves of bread and TWO fish!  Jesus seems to be asking him the impossible.  Another person we seldom think about in today’s Gospel is the little boy.  Andrew mentions him and we know that the boy shared the loaves and fish with the crowd.  The food the boy carried was likely all the food his family had.  His parents trusted him to hold on to it for when they needed it.  And then someone comes up to him and asks him to give all of his family’s food to Jesus.  Imagine going through a test like that as a small child!

            Yet, in all these cases, instead of giving up or thinking the test was unfair, impossible, too hard, etc, the person being tested did what was asked of them.  The man gave his twenty loaves of bread to the crowd, and there was some left over.  Paul continued to preach the Gospel with joy and many were converted.  The boy gave Jesus all the food he had and there were twelve baskets left over.  They submitted to God’s tests in faith.  And they learned that if they give all they have to God in faith, God will do more with it than they could imagine.  Being tested helped them understand the depth of their faith, and perhaps deepen that faith further.

            What tests are we going through right now?  What challenges do we have in our lives that seem as if we’re being asked too much?  Are we feeling like we’re giving all we have and it’s not enough?  We need to do what Jesus did.  Jesus took the small amount of food provided to him and GAVE THANKS.  Jesus was grateful for whatever was provided him.  We must do the same in times of trial.  Give thanks to God for whatever we have and are able to give.  God will multiply our offering in ways we won’t expect and make sure it is not only enough, but that it will be more than is needed.  We need to remember that these tests are for our benefit.  We can use them to understand our current relationship with God and determine what we can do to deepen that relationship.