<\/p>\n\n

The Triple Chocolate Meltdown dessert.\u00a0 When I was thinking about today\u2019s Gospel reading of Jesus feeding the 5,000 disciples, this is what came to mind: The Triple Chocolate Meltdown.\u00a0 Now, for those of you who aren\u2019t familiar, the Triple Chocolate Meltdown is a dessert at Applebee\u2019s Restaurant that would make the chocolatier Willy Wonka very proud.\u00a0 I first became acquainted with this hot fudge-filled chocolate cake three years ago when my family and I took an Applebee\u2019s gift card my parents gave us and went out to eat.\u00a0 Soon after we were sat at our table, the waitress informed us that a customer who just left paid for us to have a free dessert.\u00a0 My family and I found the most delicious item on the dessert menu and proceeded to devour the Triple Chocolate Meltdown.\u00a0 Then, when we had our fill of food paid for by someone else, we decided to pay it forward buying dessert for the next customer.<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s think back to the feeding of the 5,000 and how it all started with Jesus calling for help in feeding the disciples and a boy responding by offering to share his two fish and five loaves of bread with Jesus and the others.\u00a0 This small generous act of a boy, who put the needs of others first, started a chain reaction that resulted in 5,000 disciples being fed.<\/p>\n

When the boy gave the gift of food, Jesus quite naturally responded by receiving the gift and giving thanks, but then something miraculous happened when Jesus started sharing the food with others making it multiply.<\/p>\n

Even now, we occasionally hear stories in the news of hundreds of people in a row being fed at a restaurant without having to pay, all because one generous person decided to put the needs of someone else first by offering to provide food to that other person.\u00a0 When we view these stories with supernatural eyes, we just may catch a glimpse of Jesus still at work today making the food offering of one person multiply to feed the many.<\/p>\n

Some people may call these \u2026 stories of paying it forward, some may call them stories of putting others first, but St. Thomas Aquinas would have called these stories of \u201clove.\u201d\u00a0 My favorite definition of love comes from St. Thomas Aquinas.\u00a0 He said \u201cto love is to will the good of the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s not the reason we put the needs of others first, it turns out that putting the needs others first is good for us.\u00a0 A University of Michigan study showed that those who put the needs of others first by giving their time and talent serving others live longer than those who spend their time in self-centered pursuits.\u00a0 Research has also shown that those who put the needs of others first have a better quality of life and well-being; reporting less depression, more physical fitness and more social connections.<\/p>\n

Now, if we\u2019re honest, when we hear about Jesus and some saintly people putting the needs of others first, there are probably some of us sitting here thinking, \u201cyeah, putting the needs of others first might have been good for them, but they didn\u2019t have to deal with the self-centered people I have to deal with.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s important for us to remember that in the same chapter where Jesus feeds the 5,000, he also refers to Judas as a devil because of his self-centered ways.\u00a0 Later in this Gospel, we hear about the communal money bag intended to be used to pay for the food needs and other basic needs of the disciples.\u00a0 Guess who was the Chief Financial Officer in charge of taking care of the disciples\u2019 money bag?\u00a0 Does anyone have an answer?\u00a0 It was Judas, the thief.\u00a0 I wonder if there would\u2019ve been enough money in the communal money bag to pay for food for the 5,000 if it had not been for Judas putting his own needs first by stealing from the communal money bag.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, we see that by Judas continuing down this path of putting his own needs first resulted in him reaching the conclusion of this dead-end road in a miserable state.\u00a0 If we let it happen to us, one self-centered person can easily turn into a domino effect of more people switching from an approach of putting the needs of others first to instead putting their own needs first.\u00a0 When this approach of putting our own needs first happens on a massive scale, the needs of so many people aren\u2019t being met, that the government might step in to try to take care of the needs of all the people whose needs aren\u2019t being met.\u00a0 While this is certainly well-intentioned, let us not lose sight of the fact that Jesus intended a more fulfilling approach with his feeding of the 5,000.\u00a0 After all, when the 5,000 were fed, those 5,000 people were not encountering Caesar or a government official.\u00a0 Instead, these 5,000 people had an encounter with Jesus and his disciples.<\/p>\n

You see, food is meant to bring us closer to God and each other. We\u2019ve heard the saying, \u201cyou are what you eat.\u201d\u00a0 Well, when we eat the Body of Christ, our very being is changed so we are more fully members of the Body of Christ.\u00a0 We are unified with Christ and with our brothers and sisters in Christ.<\/p>\n

When our eyes are opened to the spiritual truth that putting the needs of others first results in fulfillment for us, it becomes easier for us to experience a little taste of heaven here on earth and prepare ourselves for the fulfillment that awaits us for all eternity in God\u2019s heavenly kingdom.<\/p>\n

So, let us receive the gift of the bread of life Jesus offers to us, give thanks and share the food we have been given with our brothers and sisters in Christ, so that with Jesus\u2019 help it can be multiplied to feed even more people.\u00a0 This week, we can share the food we\u2019ve been given with others by taking the Eucharist or a meal to a friend or family member who is sick or by giving food we have in our car to the person on the street asking for help, or by paying for the food of the person that comes after us at a restaurant or by inviting our new pastor over for dinner. Fr Jeremy did not pay me to say that…yet.<\/p>\n

Whichever way we choose to put the needs of others first this week, may it help us come to see that the miraculous plan Jesus has for each of us is way more fulfilling than the Triple Chocolate Meltdown dessert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Triple Chocolate Meltdown dessert.\u00a0 When I was thinking about today\u2019s Gospel reading of Jesus feeding the 5,000 disciples, this is what came to mind: The Triple Chocolate Meltdown.\u00a0 Now, for those of you who aren\u2019t familiar, the Triple Chocolate Meltdown is a dessert at Applebee\u2019s Restaurant that would make the chocolatier Willy Wonka very … <\/p>\n

Read More “The Triple Chocolate Meltdown Dessert”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/toledodeacon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/toledodeacon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/toledodeacon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/toledodeacon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/toledodeacon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=423"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/toledodeacon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":428,"href":"http:\/\/toledodeacon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions\/428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/toledodeacon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/toledodeacon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/toledodeacon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}