Weekly Homily
“Jesus said, ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.’” (Luke 6:20-21)
“SOUL-SURFING” – February 14, 2010
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Luke 6:17, 20-26
Fr. Robert deLeon, CSC
Recently reconnecting via Facebook with Maureen, a student of mine over 30 years ago now living in Manhattan, I read that she describes herself as a burned-out surgical ICU nurse who left the profession in 2006 to become gainfully employed by her own family (husband, children and dog) as a domestic servant whose job description seems to center around cleaning toilets and picking up dirty clothes. And while she lists gourmet cooking as one of her interests, one might wonder if she can find any time away from more mundane chores to indulge her passion. Well, just days after Christmas she posted a newspaper article that provided the answer. It seems that Maureen is so much more than an imprisoned domestic servant. Indeed, she is the sous chef at a Harlem soup kitchen. Yes! A sous chef at a soup kitchen! The published article, entitled “NYC Soup Kitchen Bids Adieu to 2009 with Caviar,” tells the story:
“When the dining room of a popular gourmet restaurant in Manhattan was gutted by fire, the refrigerators were packed with expensive food that needed a new home — fast! The solution: a donation of truffle butter, fiddleheads and other goodies to a nearby soup kitchen. Same goes for leftover crusty French baguettes, asparagus spears whose tips have been used by a finicky chef and pans of fresh tuna steaks trimmed to the wrong size and rejected by the intended restaurant.
“These tasty donations — a regular occurrence at Broadway Community Inc.’s soup kitchen, on Broadway at West 114th Street in Harlem — are a stark contrast to the institutional-sized No. 10 cans of food heated up and ladled out at many facilities serving the underprivileged. The stories I hear from Maureen, sous chef at the gourmet soup kitchen, never cease to amaze me. After preparing today’s lip-smacking lunch of lamb tagine, Maureen raced to her cookbooks for details on blinis and crème fraiche. Why? Because Wednesday’s meal promised to be even more incredible, thanks to the donation of a $1,100 tin of Petrossian caviar by someone who wants to remain anonymous.
“Chef Michael Ennes and volunteers like Maureen are able to add back a bit of dignity for the 200 or so souls who are served restaurant-style — no paper plates – in the basement of Broadway Presbyterian Church. Thanks to a generous connoisseur of caviar, the kitchen’s last meal of 2009 will be world-class fare in a world that has been less than fair.” (PounceNow, December28, 2009)
“World-class fare in a world that has been less than fair”: it’s what Maureen seeks to provide for her Harlem clientele and, surely, it’s what Jesus desires for every person on this earth. While Maureen labors to feed lavishly those who enter the soup kitchen at which she volunteers, the work of Jesus feeding his flock is usually less dramatic, less newsworthy than Harlem’s poor dining on caviar. Indeed, Jesus seems to work behind the scenes prodding and nudging people just like Maureen to reach out to the needs evident in the local neighborhood.
In the gospel passage we hear this day, we discover Jesus providing just such a prod and nudge to the multitude gathered to hear him. “Jesus said, ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.’” (Luke 6:20-21) And while he offers comfort and hope to those struggling in body and spirit, Jesus probably made the crowd squirmy and itchy when he heaped woes on those already reasonably well-off in this life. Centuries later and oft-quoted, social activist Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936) described the mission of Jesus and every Christian thereafter: “To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
To provide “world-class fare in a world that has been less than fair” and “To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”: it’s our mission as committed followers of Jesus. It’s what is being asked of us on this Valentine’s Day, when, though love be in the air, it doesn’t seem to have come in for a landing as our world remains ever in deadly conflict.
And if the prod and nudge of Valentine’s Day is not enough to compel our care of those in need, we begin Lent this week, Ash Wednesday’s black smudge on the forehead a reminder that we’re all really down-and-outers, the constant pull of sin ever distancing us from God and neighbor. Indeed, Lent’s admonition to pray, fast and give alms is the tri-fold remedy for those of us who have drifted.
As I read the newspaper clipping about my former student I chuckled as I recalled her long-ago spirited classroom antics. The humor with which she describes her present life on Facebook assures me that her spirit has only enlarged over the years. Proclaiming herself a burned out surgical ICU nurse now employed as a domestic servant to her family, she only makes passing mention of gourmet cooking as a hobby. Indeed, it’s the New York press that expands on her story, heralding her work as sous chef in a Harlem soup kitchen that, probably unlike all others, provides a gourmet menu, restaurant seating, china and silverware and even caviar to the world-weary residents of the street.
Lent begins this week with its admonition to pray, fast and give alms. It’s the time to confess that, in truth, we are all world-weary residents of the street. While the travails of life are more obvious in some lives than in others, no one of us can escape the challenge of the hard journey home. But Jesus assures us that if we reach out to others with generosity and perhaps a bit of caviar, making it safely home is assured.