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_{17th Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 26, 2009} 

          Eric Zorn is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune.  One day his work took him to Chicago's poorest neighborhood.  Suddenly, 51-year-old Dennis Dunn pulled up to the curb in his Ford Explorer.  Dressed in a blue sports coat and white dress pants, he emerged holding an empty coffee can with a slit in its plastic lid.

          Then he began begging money from the poor street people.  Zorn said it was one of the craziest things he had ever seen in his life.  The street people just stood there dumbfounded at what was happening.

          Dunn explained that he worked for Making Choices, a Catholic prison ministry.  He said it provided guidance and support for juveniles who had been released from the detention center just down the street, but who still had to attend regular meetings.

          To get to these meetings, many of these young people had to cross dangerous gang boundaries.  So adult volunteers began picking them up and transporting them to the detention center meetings in an old broken-down van.  When the van finally conked out, Dunn, an ordained Catholic deacon, took it upon himself to solicit money to buy a new van.

          At first, he used the empty coffee can as a gimmick to solicit funds from affluent friends and co-workers in the suburbs.  Then one day his wife, Nancy, suggested that, ideally, some of the money should come from the neighborhood people who would see the van drive up and down the street with the kids.

          It would give these neighborhood people a sense of dignity knowing that they were part of a ministry to help kids.  That’s when Dunn began soliciting funds from the street people in Chicago's poorest neighborhood.

          At first the street people turned away in utter disbelief.  But when Dunn persisted and explained that the money was to help kids stay out of jail, they stopped to listen.  A waitress at Edna’s Soul Food restaurant emptied all of her tips into his can.  One person sitting on the curb with a half-pint bottle in a brown paper bag put in a pair of dimes.  A homeless person emerged from a doorway and dropped in a few coins of his own.

          Dunn says, "No matter what you may have heard, this neighborhood is filled with people who care…even the most dysfunctional street people understand and care."  What is needed is to explain the project in a way that the people understand and share in the dignity and privilege of being part of the project.  If we do this, we’ll find that their response can be absolutely beautiful.

          I really like that story, and I like it for two reasons especially.  First, what Deacon Dennis Dunn did is exactly what Jesus did in today's Gospel.  Jesus involved others in the miracle of feeding the hungry.  He involved his disciples and the boy.

          Second, what the deacon and Jesus did provides us with a paradigm for understanding similar projects.  It is estimated that 1 out of every 50 children in the world go to bed each night hungry.  There is a story about a person who begged God to work a great miracle to help these starving children.  In utter frustration, the person shouted, "Lord, why don't you do something about this terrible situation down here?"  There was a pause.  Then a heavenly voice replied, "I did do something. I made you."

          That reminds me of a quote by Edward Everett Hale: "I am only one, but still I am one.  I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, let me not refuse to do the something that I can do."

          The point is this:  God wants to help people.  But God wants to do it in a way that allows us to participate with dignity in his miracle of helping the needy.  And that's what Jesus did and that’s what the Chicago deacon did.  And that brings us to each one of us in this church.

          Today's Gospel offers us a paradigm for changing our world...a paradigm for multiplying anew the loaves and fish to feed the hungry and needy of our world.  Our job is not simply to pray for the hungry and the needy during the Prayers of the Faithful at Mass.  Nor is it simply to be generous in giving money to help the hungry and needy.  Rather, our job is to do both of these things and something more.  It is to do what Jesus did.  It is to do what the deacon did.

          It is to seek ways to involve everyone in the privilege and dignity of changing our world, even involving those whom we think are part of the world's problems.  Our job is to realize that Jesus wants to work miracles for the hungry and needy of our time, just as he did for them in his time.

          But Jesus needs us to look around and see what needs most to be done in our home, our school, our parish.  He needs us to do what the boy in the Gospel did and what the deacon did.  Jesus needs us to invite others to join him and to find ways to involve even those less gifted than ourselves in making our world a better place.  Be on the lookout for opportunities and programs coming to Holy Spirit in the near future!

          The good news of today's Gospel, of what we celebrate in today's liturgy is:  "I am only one, but I am still one.  I cannot do everything, but I can still do something; and because I cannot do everything, let me not refuse to do the something that I can do."

          It is the good news that if we give our loaves and fish to Jesus, as the boy in today's Gospel did and as the Chicago deacon did, Jesus will help us change our world in ways we never dreamed possible!