The Work of Belief: Homily for the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2024

18^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, B                                                                   August 4, 2024
Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville

N.B. This is the second homily in a series. The first is here.

Last week, we saw the importance of bringing our hunger, our desires to Jesus no matter what they were. This allows Jesus to satisfy, heal, transform, or transcend those desires. Jesus was happy to multiply the loaves and feed the crowds last week, knowing they’d be hungry again and that they’d follow him. This time when they come to him, instead of feeding them again he deliberately stirs up more hunger: “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” You thought that bread was good? I’ve got stuff that means you’ll never be hungry again! For people who had to work almost daily just to make sure there was food for the next day, you can imagine the appeal.

They catch the implication, though, that there’s still work involved. “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus isn’t promising a freebee, just offering a better payout for better work. The same thing is at work in the first reading. After the Israelites go to Moses with their hunger, God promises to provide for them food in abundance. And he does with quail and, more importantly, with the Manna. We don’t read it here, but the Israelites have to go out every morning to collect it. On Fridays they have to collect double so they have some for the Sabbath when it won’t appear. Why the extra steps? The specific schedule? God’s already doing a miracle, so why not simply have a complete meal appear in their bowls? Or why not just simply take away their hunger and make them miraculously able to go without food?

Because we are human beings and God’s miracles lift up our humanity, they don’t replace it. It is human to eat. It is human to work. So, instead of skipping the working and the eating, he miraculously connects our labors, our hunger, our eating to his gifts.

We often stress the generosity of God, emphasizing that we cannot earn his love. That is true. Yet, we sometimes create the impression that we don’t have to do anything in order to receive his love. That’s not true. Not because we have to earn God’s love but because we human beings need to labor, to work. It is not love to empower laziness and helplessness. Ask any good coach: they make people work hard because of love. To love and be loved requires effort. Prayer takes effort. Liturgy is a holy work. Even receiving communion requires mental preparation, confession of sins, and fasting ahead of time.

So, the crowd with Jesus understands that the “food that endures” requires the “works of God” just as manna in the desert required gathering and preparing it. What kind of work? “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” That’s it? Just believe? Easy!

Is it though? Ask someone in the midst of darkness, anguished by loss and doubt just how easy that is. Read the journals of saints like Therese of Lisieux, Padre Pio, and Mother Teresa and you’ll see how hard belief can be. We often confuse believing with thinking. To “believe in the one he sent” is not a single mental decision to say “ah yes, I think Jesus is God’s son.” That word belief – from the Greek Pisteuo – also mean trust, confidence, fidelity. One of the clear differences between a mere idea and real belief is seen in the way someone lives. It’s easy for someone to have the opinion that Jesus is real, but if their life is basically unaffected by that idea, it’s not quite belief. Real belief takes work. This is why a large part of what divides Catholics and Protestants is kind of semantics. We actually both agree that we’re saved by faith and not by our own effort. Only, we understand that real faith, faith that saves is work.

Do not be afraid, though! The willingness to ask questions, to express doubt is part of that work. When the crowds ask, “what sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?” Jesus doesn’t rebuke them. That search, that sincere-for-now request is part of the work. And they turn to scripture, to this very passage from the old testament seeking his wisdom in what it means for them now.

Do you have doubts? Questions about our faith? Okay, do the work of believing! Part of that work is to search the scriptures with openness and humility. Just don’t accept the first skeptical internet opinion you find about scripture. Actually spend time with it, look to truly credible sources just as this crowd goes to Jesus, whom they recognize as a reliable teacher. How little they realize his even more than that!

What other work can we do to believe? Evaluate our actions! How we live and what we believe are mutually influential. Start deliberately taking actions that express your belief and your belief will grow. Let’s take the Eucharist for example. Catholics believe the Eucharist really is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ. He is sent by God not just back then, but also in this special sacrament. Yet, do we really do the work of believing that? It’s one thing to say we think it’s true on a survey, but do our actions confirm that?

You come up to receive communion on the hand or the tongue – what were those hands and tongues doing before Mass? During the week between communions? Did you examine your conscience, really call to mind sin and repent at the start of this Mass? When was your last confession? And when you come up, are you showing reverence, eagerness to receive? Or just boredom because Mass has taken 40 minutes so far and you’re ready to get out now? If you receive on the hand, do you carefully examine for particles or let our Lord casually fall to the floor? Do you speak “amen” with clarity and conviction? Do you prayerfully reflect on what you’ve received afterwards?

Outside of Mass, do we act like the king and creator of the universe is in that tabernacle, dwelling in this sacred temple? Or do we treat it like any other public space? How quickly and loudly does this Church echo with chit chat after Mass? How eager are we to acknowledge other people we see at Church, but slow to acknowledge the Lord? Would a non-Catholic walking in after Mass have any idea that this Church houses something their own church does not? It’s hot outside, but we live here, we’re used to it and can manage it long enough for a visit with friends outside instead of filling the church with unnecessary noise.

Bad habits creep in. Good habits grow weak. So, we need reminders. I challenge you as your pastor to reevaluate how you act in this building, how you dress to come to Mass – like you’re coming to the see the king or like you couldn’t be bothered to tidy up? Consider how well you keep the one-hour fast – nothing but water and medicine for at least an hour before. That means no gum either. Consider how you receive communion, how you act before and after Mass.

These aren’t the only things that matter and they can seem pretty small, but they do matter. How we act affects how we believe “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” So do the work for your words, your clothes, your attitude, your body, and your behavior to show that this Sacrament, this Eucharist truly is Jesus, sent by the Father to dwell with you. Believe it, then receive like you believe it so that you too might endure unto eternal life.

The homily series continues here.