Loaves and Fishes

HERS:
When you give someone a hug, do you have one less hug left to give?

When you laugh with someone, does your storage of laughs become smaller?

Are the number of times you can say "I love you" finite?

These were some of the questions rolling through my head during and after the Saturday 5:30pm mass at Our Lady of the Presentation Catholic Church in Poolesville, MD.

First, a little about the church. I won't get into the history, because I save that for Lou... it's his thing. This church is one of the newest ones we have attended, with the church building's completion taking place in 2001. The 5:30 mass was not well attended, hopefully due to vacations this time of year. Mass was celebrated by Fr. Justin Huber along with Deacon Bill Stevens. Fr. Justin is the one and only priest in the parish.

The theme that rolled along throughout the mass was that of feeding the masses with little food. The gospel of the loaves and fishes is probably one of the most recognized by the Catholic community. In this gospel, Jesus is with his disciples when a large crowd begins to gather to listen to Jesus. It sounds to me like things have not changed much since Jesus' time... nowadays when crowds gather, there is usually food involved too. Jesus asks his disciples if there is any food. All they can come up with is the small amount of food that a little boy in the crowd had... five loaves of bread and two fish. Hmmm... this may feed a small family, but the gospel puts the number of men in the crowd alone to be 5,000. Add women and children and you come up with a number much larger than 5,000. This gospel goes on to say that Jesus blessed these five loaves and two fish and it was distributed among the crowd. The crowd had their fill and afterwards Jesus ordered his disciples to gather the leftovers which was enough to fill twelve wicker baskets...

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I am a math girl and these numbers just don't add up. So what's the deal? I once had a teacher who explained it this way... When Jesus blessed the loaves and fishes and began giving it to the crowd, the individuals in the crowd saw His generosity and gave from their stash. In other words, they came with food, but initially weren't willing to share it. When they saw Jesus giving the loaves and fishes, they wanted to give as well. This certainly could be one explanation. It's like when someone is nice to you or shows you a kindness. You want to be kind in return. As a result, you may be kind to someone else as well. Kindness makes you feel good... both giving it and receiving it. That kindness has a "ripple effect". So this explanation shows that the giving of food may have made the crowd want to give from their stash and as a result, there was enough for everyone with leftovers to spare.

Fr. Justin likened the Gospel reading to the Mass. We present our "gifts" to God and when those gifts, the bread and wine, are consecrated into the Body and Blood of Christ, we receive them, leave mass, and hopefully share our gifts with others.

I suppose there is one other explanation, and it is that of a miracle. When Jesus got the loaves and fishes from the boy, we can believe that he multiplied them and distributed it to the crowd.

No matter what you choose to believe, there was intervention by Jesus and there was a miracle involved.

Now I want to tie that in to what I said in the very beginning. The gifts we give... love, kindness, understanding, patience... (insert other gifts here) have the ability to multiply. Lou and I have seen this firsthand with our Roamin' Catholic journey. Now, I am not going to say our writing is a gift, but we are sharing our experiences and "putting it out there", as they say. So let's call that our loaves and fishes. I have been humbled when I hear that people are actually reading about our experiences. I think in the beginning we were read by an audience of one... my cousin Fran. We now have people sharing their experiences with us. And let me be clear... it doesn't have to be going to Mass. God is everywhere. So I would liken this to the crowd sharing their food, their gifts with us. The result are baskets of "leftovers" that are overflowing. I have made new friends as a result of this blog. We have shared our experiences with other people. They have shared their experiences with us. We have gone to mass and meals with other people who have wanted to "roam" with us. It has been an eye opening journey.

The same is true of gifts. When we share something with another person, our basket isn't "minus one". There isn't a limited supply. As my brother always says, "They'll make more". Smile at someone. They smile back. They feel good. They smile at someone else... and on and on. Gifts grow, just like the food in the crowds. Give your gifts. Give your time. Give your love. They will all come back to you with baskets of leftovers.

Dinner brought us to a local joint called House of Poolesville where they weren't serving loaves and fishes. Instead there was a live band outside and a bar/restaurant on the inside. This was a bar that served Asian Fusion. Lou had a General Tso and shrimp combo and I had the General Tso chicken. It was a fun evening.

HIS:

In our culture of consumption, I am left with an interesting question following this week’s mass.  Are we left with more than what we started with?  Interesting thought to contemplate on for the week.  This week, Roamin’ Catholics visited Our Lady of the Presentation Parish (OLP) in Poolesville, MD.  Mass was celebrated by the pastor and lone priest in residence, Father Justin Huber.  OLP is a baby church compared to some of the parishes we have visited this year.  The first rumblings of formation date back only to 1991 (sprouted out of St Mary’s in Barnesville, MD – an earlier Roamin’ visit) with the building being erected and the first mass celebrated in 2001.  I think the Archdiocese of Washington may have gotten a twofer from the architect or saved some money and reused plans from another church.  The outside of the church is very similar to Our Lady of the Visitation (OLV) in Darnestown, MD.  They both have a prominent bell tower, all brick construction, gables and an expansive roof line.  This is where the similarities end however.  The inside of OLP is more traditional than OLV.  Hmmm, the names are even similar…Im smelling collusion…Oh that’s just fake news.  Enough of that, back to the news of the week.  The most interesting feature in the church were the stained glass windows that wrapped from left front to behind the sacristy to right front.  In many churches stained glass windows depict a scene or tell a story.  This is no different.  The Hail Mary (no it is not a replay of a remarkable last minute pass by your favorite football team) is written out in nearly half a dozen windows.  The Blessed Mother is obviously a central figure in the big C Catholic church and the little c Our Lady of the Presentation church.  Not only is the prayer featured prominently in the windows but our celebrant recited the prayer during mass, not something that is a regular part of mass.  It was a subtle but nice change to a mass that is as predictable as McDonalds.  The Catholic Mass is not just like a box of chocolates because you DO KNOW just what your gonna get.  😊

This week’s readings were about the loaves and the fishes.  To me, as well known as the story of the prodigal son or the wedding at Cana.  For those unfamiliar, the gospel according to John tells the story of Jesus preaching on the mountain and he attracted 5000 men and their families.  Jesus ordered his disciples to feed the throngs.  They balked and essentially told their rabbi that there wasn’t enough money to feed everyone.  Jesus said pish posh go check the sofa cushions in the couch, you will find enough.  Well he didn’t really say that but the brother of Simon Peter (upon you I will build this church) came forward and said there was a young boy in the crowd who had five loaves and two fish.  Jesus took them, gave thanks and distributed them to the gathered masses.  Not only was there enough, Jesus gave instructions for the left overs to be gathered up so nothing went to waste.  The first reading tells a similar story and the responsorial psalm was The hand of the Lord feeds us.  He answers all our needs.   Mary told me that one of the lessons she learned in her years of Catholic education was that Jesus didn’t actually multiply the food but so inspired the people present that they were all moved to share what they had.  This brings me back to where I began.  Are we left with more than what we started with?  If we bring our meager gifts to God, he makes them better and we are left with more than what we began with.  This reminds me of an ad slogan the Red Cross had years ago to get people to donate.  All you’ll Feel is Good.     I think when we give ourselves up to the Lord and just let him guide us in our secular lives, we will get back way more in return and all we will feel is good!  As I look back on some of the earlier Roamin’ Catholics, I see a recurring theme.  Let yourself go and God will guide you.  Live life like you mean it!

For those unfamiliar with Poolesville, MD, it is a small spit of a town in Montgomery County.  As they say, don’t blink as you drive through or you will miss it.  As such, it was a bit challenging to find a restaurant close to the church.  When McDonalds is one of the highest rated restaurants in town, you know its going to be tough to find a place to eat.  Absent Mickey Ds, there are essentially only two restaurants in town.  We chose the House of Poolesville.  This place is basically a dive bar.  Lots of pick-up trucks in the parking lot as well as bikers in the bar.  They had a live band when we were there Saturday night as well.  One twist that made this place different than any dive bar I’ve ever been to was the menu.  They described their menu as Asian Fusion.  What this means is, they had Chinese, Thai and Sushi on their menu, but you could also get a burger if you wanted one.  The food was decent but not the best “Asian fusion” I’ve ever had.  Not sure if I’ve ever had Asian fusion, but this wasn’t the best.  The band was really good though.  See y’all next week for another Roamin.

And of course, we end with our Soulfie...