“The Lord needs us!”

« The possible is ours, the impossible is God’s. "- Homily of December 2

“Hunger, mourning, distress: everything that spoils our lives and makes us sad. To this,” says the prophet Isaiah, “the Lord God of hosts will respond: to hunger with a feast of rich meats and strong wines. To mourning, with the removal of the veil that envelops all peoples and the shroud that covers all nations. To distress, with tears wiped away.
And as if in echo, we find today’s Psalm 22, “ the Lord is my shepherd ”, answers at the end “ You will prepare the table before my enemies. If I pass through the ravines of death, I will fear no harm. Grace and happiness will follow me all the days of my life. » This prophecy of Isaiah and the psalm, here is the Messiah inaugurating it in Saint Matthew, today.
Saint Matthew is the only one to unite these two generally disjointed passages: the crowd with the many sick and disabled that Jesus comes to heal, with the hungry crowd that Jesus comes to feed.
These two tasks of healing and satiation which exceed our human strength. What are seven loaves and a few fish to feed a crowd? This perception of our limits often paralyzes us. We don’t dare risk the very few things we could bring.
And yet Monsignor Gobillard recalled it with his usual relevance this morning on RCF in his commentary on the scripture, “ the Lord needs us. He needs us to heal and satisfy. » I leave it to you to transpose for yourself, in your own life, what would be these areas where you sense these limits, by telling yourself that the Lord needs you in these areas. Today, we can contribute to the hope of our contemporaries. As I meditated on this scripture this morning, I thought of our sanctuary. So of course we don't have seven loaves but rather five sisters who are wonderful and then six members of an admirable team and a large number of volunteers who work hard.
But what is all this compared to these illnesses that we perceive of the soul, sometimes of the body? And next to this hunger that we encounter? And yet, the Lord needs us to contribute to the hope of those who wait.
Monsignor Gobillard, associating it with daily life, said that our Lord perhaps needs a smile in our day, a phone call that we will make, a sandwich that we will make. offer to a homeless person, a prayer to carry it. He concluded with these words which I find quite interesting: “ The possible is ours, the impossible is God’s. »
In other words, nothing is impossible with God. Amen.”