The Hard Work of Unity (7/16/2023)

Today is our parish festival, our primary parish fundraiser but also our primary parish community builder. It is a time for the Saturday Mass goers to brush elbows with the late Sunday Mass goers. It is a time for the men and women, teens and toddlers to come together, to labor together, and enjoy the fruits of those labors together. It is a time when we run into folks we haven’t seen for a while. It is a time for meeting those families new to our community. It is a perfect example of the hard work that is involved in building the community. We can’t have unity without a sense of community – a sense of being in this together – a sense of interdependence.

This festival reminds us that unity takes hard work and fervent prayer. For every person visible wearing an apron scooping stuffing there should be an unseen person somewhere who has prayed for the festival and for its success. Community is a perfect example of the old adage, “Pray to the LORD and keep rowing to shore.” Our success at building community, unity in the LORD with one another, requires our work and cooperation and the guidance and grace of the Holy Spirit.

We say we want unity. What are we doing to build it? Are we earnestly seeking ways to contribute to the building up of the Body of Christ? What are we offering of our own for this brew of “Stone Soup”?

There was soldier returning home from battle. He was hungry and without rations when he came upon a village also suffering from lack of food. He asked for food, but everyone refused, saving what little they had for themselves. So, he went to the center of town. He asked a resident if he could borrow his kettle to make a batch of soup. The resident reluctantly loaned it to him. The soldier filled it with water then walked out selecting “the perfect stones.” He tossed them into the kettle and began making his soup. The residents began to draw near to check out this stranger’s brew. The soldier spooned up some of the brew, tasted it, and said, “It’s good but it could sure use an onion or two.” After a few moments, a woman said, “I can spare an onion,” and she offered it to the soldier. He added it to the pot and stirred. A little later, he tasted the brew again and said, “I think it needs a potato” to which a man said, “I have a few in the garden,” and he went off to fetch them and give them to the soldier. This went on for hours as the soldier stirred, tasted, and called for additional ingredients to make the stew perfect – carrots, turnips, cabbage, celery, etc. And then he declared it was perfect. And to all the towns’ people gathered about, he offered them a bowl. And the whole town ate.

We know the story, I may not have told it perfectly, but we get the idea. We all have something to contribute for the good of others. None of us has “enough” on our own. But when we are willing to share what we have, there is an abundance for all. And in the sharing, in the stirring and tasting, and presence, we build unity, we become a community. And the idea for the soup and the openness to sharing are fruits of the Holy Spirit without whom we could not build community.

We all long for unity and for that sense of community that unites us rather than pits us one against another. We are looking for unity to displace the division and polarization in our world. The LORD offers us a path, but it takes work on our part as well as cooperation with the LORD. The question remains, “Will we be workers for unity? Will we seek to build the Body of Christ in this world by offering ourselves and our gifts for the mission?”

This day, this Sunday, when we read the gospel of the parable of the sower, let us pray to the LORD that we might be rich and receptive soil, that the LORD’s Word and Love will penetrate our being and bear fruit. Let us pray not only for the gifts to share with one another but also for the LORD’s desire for unity, that we might all be one.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.