On this mountain the LORD of hosts will provide for all peoples. One aspect of life a spiritual life is “thisness,” (to coin a word.) Don’t look for God in some exotic location, some specialized experience, with some unusual person. Look for God in this place, at this moment, with this person. Jesus instructs the disciples in how this operates when he challenges them: “How many loaves do you have?” He doesn’t want them to go shopping or have a fund-raising campaign or organize a food drive. What do you have at this time and in this place? God deals with “thisness” not on some idealized plane. In our concrete circumstance we can decry what we don’t have, what we are missing. Jesus wants us to understand that whatever we have, whatever we are given is enough for God to work with. For example, Pope Francis reminded us that every Christian is a missionary disciple, is called to share the good news with the people in our lives. Knowing our weakness and limitation we are tempted to demur, to figure we don’t have what it takes. Jesus says, give whatever you have and see what God can do with the likes of us.
