THURSDAY, August 19

John 6:16-27. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

Jimmy Novak was a former sailor living on the lower East Side of New York City. We met at the soup kitchen run by the parish of Holy Apostles. It was the soup kitchen’s fifteenth anniversary. I was assigned to write about Manhattan’s largest feeding program.

More than 1,200 people would be fed that day. “I look around this room and say to myself, ‘There but for the grace of God go I,’” Jimmy said.

“I stood in bread and soup lines during the Depression. I always said, ‘I only hope that some day I can pay this back.’ I don’t have a lot of money, and I could never afford to pay back what I was given, but I do have time, and time is what I give.”

“What does this mean to you?” I asked.

Jimmy glared at me. He turned toward the bustling room and said: “I believe in God. I come to church. I come back because I have no other place to go. But I love the people. I come here to feed them. Go tell that story.” He put his coat on and walked away.

This man, with all of his miseries and joys, had just summed up the entire gospel message. Love God. Love each other. Feed my sheep. Go tell the world. (2002)

PRAY for the Diocese of Freetown (West Africa)

Ps 131, 132, [133] *134, 135; Job 1:1-22; Acts 8:26-40

View the daily Lectionary Readings at Satucket.com.
Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com.

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