Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Pope Francis declared this Sunday Grandparents Day.  Why? Because it's the nearest Sunday to the Feast of Joachim and Anne, grandparents of Jesus. So, I applaud all grandparents for what they do for family life.

How many saw the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony? Covid-19 was a game changer for the ceremony: very few spectators and not much pomp for the parade of 206 nations.

Nonetheless, the Olympics highlight the dreams and work of athletes, for medals within thirty-three sports. It also celebrates three core values: the pursuit of excellence, respect for others, and friendship among all people, values worth pursuing in our global community.

Grandparents Day reminds me of a survey some 4-to-8-year-olds were asked to take on “What does love mean?”

 One response explained: “When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So, my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.”

 Here's another reply: “I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.” That brings back memories of how much my two older brothers loved me: give me their old clothes.

The word of God carries us back to a great 9^th century prophet of Ancient Israel: Elisha. A man brings loaves of bread to him. Why? So that they can be offered to God. But Elisha directs that the bread be given to the hungry to eat. The author may ask whether we acknowledge God’s generosity to us, and how generous are we, especially to the needy.

 St. Paul writes from prison to the Christian community in Ephesus, Turkey, urging them to live a life worthy of their calling as sons and daughters of God. Paul challenges the Ephesians to practice virtue, to be humble, forgiving, kind and thoughtful, patient, loving, peacemakers. And then Paul concludes, remember what binds us Christians together: our allegiance to one Lord, our commitment to one faith, and our celebration of one baptism.

In the Gospel, Jesus mesmerizes the people with signs and wonders. In this passage, the author describes the multiplication of loaves and fishes, the bread alluding to the Eucharist. Notice the words of Jesus. He “took,” “gave thanks,” “distributed.” Many people in this wonder recognized Jesus as the long-awaited prophet who would usher in the messianic age.

The theme of hunger weaves in and out of these passages. So many people hunger not only for bread, but for basic human rights, for freedom, for peace, justice and yes, for God.

But I would like to reflect on Paul’s challenge to practice virtue and one of the most fundamental Christian virtues is forgiveness. I paraphrase the Our Father: forgive us for the things we do wrong, as we forgive those who wrong us.

 When I think of examples of forgiveness, I recall Nelson Mandela of South Africa, who was jailed with 3,000 political prisoners. For 18 years, Mandela was forced to do hard labor in a quarry. He ate little and slept in a six by five foot cell. That he saw the glory of God not only in his fellow prisoners but also in his jailers, was remarkable.

 When Mandela was released in 1990, he asked all South Africans—black and white and colored—to seek not vengeance for the injustices of apartheid, but to seek reconciliation and forgiveness with one another. That he was able to do this after years of hardship and cruelty was even more remarkable.

Mandela said he wanted to be remembered as an ordinary mortal (with all the peccadillos that go with being mortal) but with qualities that are within reach of ordinary people, like you and me. If Jesus could forgive, why shouldn’t he. And if we can’t forgive on our own, God simply asks us to participate in God’s gift of forgiveness. Nelson Mandela recognized the possibilities for greatness within human beings through the act of forgiveness.

Did you ever notice that the only people who really upset Jesus were hypocrites, those who refused to see anything wrong with their own prejudices, those who had no sense of a need for repentance, for forgiveness.

Jesus offered forgiveness aplenty to those who admitted they needed it. Amazing things are possible if we allow the Master to lay his forgiving hands upon us, an image captured powerfully in a poem by Myra Welch. Poems can be prayers. Here are some of my favorite lines from that poem about an old, battered violin up for auction. The price begins cheaply but it soars when a master violinist plays an angelic melody: 

…Many a person with life out of tune

And battered and scarred with sin

Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd,

Much like the old violin …

But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd

Never can quite understand

The worth of the soul and the change that’s wrought

By the touch of the Master’s hand.

May we ask God for his forgiving hand to change us into our better selves. And may our forgiveness of people who may have wronged us change them into their better selves.