Philip is the practical disciple. “When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” Philip does the math, and replies “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” You all know the rest of the story. Jesus takes 5 loaves and 2 fish, and somehow there is enough for the entire crowd to eat until they are satisfied. Enough becomes the miraculous.
Like Jesus and his disciples, we live in a world where there is significant and stark, visible need. We can see it clearly, as through a pane of glass. Sometimes it shouts at us. And if we do the math like Philip, we usually seem to come up short on resources. Globally, millions of people live in extreme deprivation of food and basic medical care.
We all live in the tension between scarcity and abundance, and that can be an uncertain and scary place to be. Jesus challenges his disciples and us, in the midst of that fearful tension, to a radical type of hospitality that defies all of the math and yields that miraculous enough. He tells us to welcome this entire hungry crowd and to offer what we have with thanksgiving to God for those gifts.
Through Cathedral Missions, youth and adults alike engage in this work of welcoming the hungry crowd, by prayerfully assessing what gifts we have to offer and by walking alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ in Houston, on the Gulf Coast and in Honduras. Together we diligently work for the restoration of human dignity and the meeting of human need.
Two years ago, our Mission Honduras team identified a pressing need in our partner community of Fe y Alegría for significant changes to their water supply and sanitation systems for the sake of the health of the community. This year, in addition to conducting our medical clinic and health education programs, our team will be laying the groundwork at the household level to provide cleaner water for cooking and washing and to address the widespread problem of water-bourn parasites. Long-term partnerships are systematically being forged to address the overall water supply problems in the village. We also seek to establish a fund for addressing urgent medical situations that are beyond the capabilities of our medical staff.
This year our Mission Possible Campaign Team asks you where we can find the resources to meet the needs of the hungry crowd that faces us and to begin this restorative and healing work. Our 38-missioner team needs your prayers and your support. Walk with us in this work. Stay informed. Pray. Bring your gifts to this altar and get ready to feed the hungry crowd, joyful in the knowledge that, with God’s blessing, even our small gifts are enough.
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