You give them something to eat

Tuesday, January 04, 2011
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (Memorial)

First Reading: Psalm: Gospel:

1 John 4:7-10 Psalm 72:1-4, 7-8 Mark 6:34-44

Mark 6:37 But he answered them, "You give them something to eat." And they said to him, "Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?"

I struggle a bit with today's political divide over welfare vs. freedom. In one sense I think that the government is encroaching on our freedoms and creating a class of people who are not free but dependent on the government. On the other hand I am challenged by the call of the scriptures to show mercy and compassion and to feed and care for the poor. How do I reconcile these things?

One thought is that if we fail (as a church) to take care of the poor, the government is more than happy to step in, because it gives them opportunity to take control. It occurs to me that the government, or anybody else for that matter, only takes what we are willing to give. If we fail to take care of the poor and decide to give that responsibility to the government, then we are at fault. It has been said that if all people who consider themselves Christian actually tithed, we would have so much that we could feed the poor and have plenty left over. But we would rather have the government do it. And with that we watch our freedoms being taken from us and even our own faith now is offensive to many.

It is our own hardness that has given the monster government it's power. The way we can take it back is to take responsibility back and do what the Bible calls us to do and not delegate that to others. Jesus said to the disciples when they wanted to send the people away for food "you feed them".

Do we take responsibly or do we give it way?

Father, help me by your Holy Spirit to take responsibility for what you have called me to be and to do and not rely on others to do it for me.

Amen