Feeding of the five thousand

 I read a report a few weeks ago to say that religion was dead that we no longer desired or had any need for God. Also in the same report that many young people could not or would not be interested in God and were just out for their own self and had no regard for anything else. Even there has been an attempt to change the language of religion. I heard the other day on the radio someone talking about “mindfulness” actually they were describing prayer without mentioning God. I was in the middle of washing up at the time and shouted at the radio and said “That is called prayer.”

My recent trip to Lourdes I have come across something very different and they remind me of the readings today.

In the readings today we hear about coming to the water and the feeding of the five thousand with bread and fish. It is in these readings that we notice the generosity of God Notice his generosity in the feeding of the five thousand in this Gospel Jesus uses Five loaves and two fishes and the people have more and enough to eat in fact there is enough left over. His generosity is seen in the sacraments of the Church from the life giving water in the sacrament of baptism to the eating of Jesus Body and blood in the Mass. This generosity was shown to me in a very real sense this last week. God’s generous love was especially shown in the Mass we celebrated every day the reconciliation service and the sacrament of the sick. It shows us that as St Paul says “Nothing can come between us and the love of God.” We can taste and see the Goodness of the Lord in the sacraments that we celebrate in the Church.

And yet it does not stop here I saw the generosity in the help given to those in need. Most of the helpers in Lourdes not just from A&B were young people who gave up their time and found the money to come and help. They were a real inspiration and were Church to others. They showed an expression of Church and had a lot of fun in doing it. Constantly smiling even when tired they showed the generosity of God’s love in their service to one another and supported each other in that ministry of love. And yet they also came together to pray and be with God. Out of our service of God must come the generosity of God for others both go hand in hand. It showed me that the Church is not dead that people and especially young people do want to know about Jesus and be Church and pray and be together. I can only learn from them and do the same with the same cheerful generosity.