An Eccentric

July 28, 2024

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

John 6: 1-15

He is, by anyone’s description, quite bit eccentric. Even he says he is eccentric. His extreme stutter and learning difficulty make him seem less intelligent than he really is. He lives by himself, rides his bicycle wherever he goes, even though he has a car. He rides his bike on the street through the Thanksgiving Day Parade, Woodward Cruise and the Memorial Day Parade. He says he wants people to notice him. And we are not even going to discuss his laundry habits.

He works two jobs to make ends meet and even then, he has a very difficult time doing so. But it’s been his way his whole life, so he does not know any difference. He’ll be working somewhere long after his peers have retired because he has nothing saved. Occasionally he’ll muse about “his ship coming in,” but deep down he knows that's just not going to happen. He’ll say, “that's just how us paycheckers do it.”

And yet, he is the most generous and kindhearted person I know. I’ve seen him drive “friends” from hundreds of miles, just so they can be with their family for a weekend and never ask for gas money. (I helped understand why that could not continue.) If he has fifty cents in his pocket, he’ll gladly give you a dollar, and worry about how to make up the difference later. His rationale is that if he is generous to others, maybe God will be generous to him. I do not try to dissuade him from that thought.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus performs the Miracle of Loaves and Fishes that we are very familiar with. Scholars and theologians debate about if Jesus really did multiply the fish and bread, or if those on the hill, opened their own baskets to help feed the multitude through generosity. As I reflect on this story, I feel it does not matter which version is true. The bottom line is that everyone was fed by the grace of God.

In my world today, there are many opportunities to be generous. There is no shortage of charities to give my money to. There is no shortage of places I could volunteer my time to help the marginalized of our society. There is no shortage of places who could use my assistance doing good works for the poor and under-housed. And try as I may to be supportive of charities, I cannot help all of them by myself. Amazingly, however, these organizations manage to survive without me.

I see that my efforts do indeed help the charities I can support, but God provides for the remainder by sending others to do the work and provide the support. Our God is an awesome God. The important thing is that I need to participate in God’s work to the best of my ability. If I do that, and others do the same, then God’s work gets done, and we call it a miracle.

Sure, I often feel over stretched and that I just can’t afford any more money or time to help anyone else with their problems or work. It is then that I recall that I cannot outspend God. God will provide and give me direction on what needs to be the priority. When I look at my own needs and see the abundance that I have been given, I realize I need to act to help those for whom abundance is not a way of life. I may not be terribly eccentric, but I have to ask, what can I do today to help provide the material for God to do miracles? 

Every Day.

© 2024 by Timothy J. Doppel

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