Bread Shared for the Life of the World

Summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily from February 6, 2005

"Share your bread with the hungry…then your light will break forth like the dawn" Is. 58:7.

THERE ARE PEOPLE in our lives who inspire us. One of my heroes is Jose Grullon, Bishop of San Juan de la Maguana, our sister diocese in the Dominican Republic.

In January I was to meet him for lunch, on my way to Banica on the frontier with Haiti. I had traveled five hours and was late. He still had lunch waiting for me. He broke out a bottle of Spanish burgundy. After lunch he indicated that he had some work to do before we would journey together. "Gerardo, you will need to take a siesta after your long ride," he asserted, as he showed me the visitors' room. There were two beds, one unmade. I thanked him. He interrupted me to let me know that the unmade bed had the softer mattress, and proceeded over my protests to make the bed for the guest. I said to myself "This is a strange bishop."

It reminded me of another time I made a similar remark. It was the Chrism Mass when the diocese was assembled for a ceremony of rededication. He preached about the foot-washing rite of Holy Thursday that we were about to celebrate. He stressed that the origin of this gesture was hygiene. He proceeded to ask the parishes to launch a new program at Easter time: to build latrines. In communities where the majority of families went without this basic need diseases flourished. Today our sister diocese has extended to its disadvantaged population more than a liturgical gesture.

In the dining room while I ate lunch I noticed a large photo of a glass of wine and a loaf of bread with a knife. It carried the caption, "Hagamos de nuestras vidas pan partido para la vida del mundo." May we make of our lives bread shared for the life of the world.

I can think of no better way to describe Bishop Grullon or no better theme for this Year of the Eucharist or the upcoming season of Lent.

The next 40 days are a time to fast so that others may eat. Rice Bowl is a Lenten project of Catholic Relief services. We are called to eat a bowl of soup or a lesser meal. What we might have spent on a family meal in a restaurant we contribute to self-help projects for the world's hungry people. St. Charles has permission to reserve a portion for our new AIDS-Africa Outreach. The parish will celebrate a community soup supper on Tuesday nights, preceded by a 6 PM Eucharist and followed by a presentation on the various hungers of the world. Rachel Lustig, Chair of our Social justice Committee and staff to Catholic Charites USA will initiate this series with a presentation on hunger in America. For those of you who cannot join us, I urge you to set aside Friday, the day of abstinence, or another day that is more suitable, to eat a lesser meal with your household. If you have forgotten to say grace, this will be an ideal time to initiate a table blessing. You may add the rice bowl prayer to the table blessing, and your own spontaneous prayers of gratitude and petition. This is our time to breathe new life into the traditional practices of Lent: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

In what we do we imitate the fasting of Jesus, identifying ourselves with the hungers of our planet, so that like him we may become bread shared for the life of the world.