Sunday Scripture: Reflection for July 28, 2024

Sunday Scripture: Reflection for July 28, 2024

Esprit de L’Ame Community with the food items they collected

Scripture Reflection: July 28, 2024 - Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
 
2 Kings 4:42-44
Ephesians 4:1-6
John 6:1-15
 
The Old Testament reading describes Elisha, through the power of God, feeding 100 people with twenty barley loaves, the food of the poor. John’s Gospel reading depicts Jesus’s multiplication of five loaves of bread (also barley) to feed 5,000 men as well as women and children. With both miracles, food was left over. Consider that sufficient food is a basic human need and that “Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them,” a foretelling of the Last Supper.
 
As God provides spiritual sustenance through the Eucharist, we in the Body of Christ can provide earthly food to those in need. Food insecurity exists even in the U.S. where over 44 million people including 13 million children experience food insecurity annually. One way to fulfill the Theresian dimension of Ministry is to give to food banks. Our Esprit de L’Ame community responded to a 100-item Food Challenge - we collected 10 items each of ten different staples to donate to our local food bank. Perhaps other groups could consider accepting this call as well. St. Paul urges the Ephesians (and us) to “live in a manner worthy of the call you have received… bearing with one another through love.”
 
Anne Broussard
Esprit de L'Ame Community
Lafayette, LA

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