Friday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2.

It is interesting to me that the readings for today are about famine and feasts.   For the last five days, I have consumed no food whatsoever.   Instead, I have been taking the money that I would have spent to buy food for me and putting it to the side.   When this week is over, I will send that money to a diocese in Africa where the children are starving and in great need.

I've learned a lot about myself and my relationship with food.   I think it's an American thing.   I was indeed reminded of that when Father Rogatus mentioned the massive serving sizes at the restaurant where some people took him for dinner.   At just one of our American style buffets, you'll find more food than many villages have for the entire population in a month.  That should remind us that we are not only blessed, but we are using our wealth in a way that is both unsustainable and uncharitable.

Matthew in the Gospel is an example of this.   To the Jewish people, he was the lowest of the low.  He made his money by taking from his people and giving to Rome.   They saw the tax collectors as horrible sinners, unreformable!   To their astonishment, he was one of the first to convert and became one of the twelve.    We have to keep in mind that even the outsider, maybe even more often the outsider, will often be the most important convert.

It reminds us that even though we aren't perfect, we are called to be Saints.   That shouldn't leave us feeling hopeless, as if the Saints of the Church put us to shame, but hope-filled!   We are called to do like Matthew and go forth and follow Christ, sitting down at the table with all of our brothers and sisters, sinners and Saints alike but not staying in our sin. Instead, we are called to lift ourselves up out of the muck of the world, reaching out for God's grace to become what he created us to be.

We can start in the smallest of ways.   We often see fasting as just a "Lent thing."   It should preferably be a part of our lives.   That doesn't mean you have to do water fasting like mine.   I would encourage you though to give up something, even if its just one coffee or one donut, and use the money there to feed some of our brothers and sisters who are less fortunate.  That way all of us can be at the table, and not just those who were lucky enough to be born in an affluent country.    It only takes a pebble to start an avalanche.   One dollar doesn't mean much to us here, but for many, that's precisely what they need to get food for just one day.

A reflection on the readings for July 6th, 2018, Friday of the Thirtenth Week in Ordinary Time