Monday – Feast of Sts. Joachim and Anna

Gospel – Matthew 13:31-35

God of Abundance

Making Bread!

This past Friday was a busy day for me.  After pulling 7 nice large zucchini from our garden, I then spent the day baking zucchini bread.  The result?  20 loaves!!  Yes, correct, 20 fresh loaves!  Such an abundance and lots more to come!  Quite different from baking simple bread!  Baking zucchini bread takes a short amount of time but it is extremely labor-intensive and tiring.  Baking bread, however, takes a very long time but most of it is simply waiting, waiting for the dough to rise!

In the second of today’s parables, Jesus speaks of a woman who prepares 3 measures of flour to make bread.  Talk about excess!  The recipe I use for bread requires about 4 cups of flour; out of that, I end up with 2 loaves of fresh bread.  However the woman in today’s parable is using 3 measures of wheat flour.  That’s over 66 pounds of flour and would end up making at least 52 loaves of bread.  In Jesus’ time, baking bread was a daily chore and no family is going to eat that much bread in one day.

So what’s going on?  First of all, the Jews would never use yeast to make bread!  For whatever reason, yeast symbolized sin and corruption. So bread was always unleavened (no yeast).  Look at it from a Christian point of view.  Jesus is the Bread of Life and is without sin.  So no yeast! Then consider that Jesus is comparing the Kingdom and the King (God) to the mundane tasks of a woman, something completely unheard of.  And finally she is making enough bread to feed not just her family but her entire village, young and old, rich and poor, good and bad!  Everyone!

So what is the Kingdom of God like?  It is like a woman who bakes enough bread to feed her village, to feed everyone.  It is like adding yeast to the dough to remind us that the Kingdom is for everyone, good and bad, the sinful and the saintly!  And it is a Kingdom whose King is a God of abundant love and generosity!

Is it any wonder then that we celebrate today the Feast of Saints Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin Mary, the grandparents of Jesus!  And is it any wonder that yesterday Pope Francis celebrated World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly! I love being a grandparent; I love spoiling my grandsons.  I live by the motto: when the parents say NO, talk to PaPa!  Can you think of anyone in your life more generous, more abundant in their time and generosity than our grandparents?

Creator of all life, no matter where we turn, you are there with us, to guide us and to shelter us from the storms of life. Be with us today and every day.  Help us to grow in faith in You and love and generosity for our brothers and sisters.

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