So many of us can all too easily relate perhaps with the woman in today’s Gospel. She comes to Jesus, pleading - begging, for help for her daughter. To be sure, we encounter several people like this all throughout the Gospels. Think of the centurion who comes to Jesus on behalf of his servant, think of Jairus coming to Jesus on behalf of his own daughter. Think of the woman who had been hemorrhaging blood for many years. Countless others either in the Gospel themselves or sitting in the pews here today. So many of these people just fall before our Lord just as Peter did last week, “Lord, save me.” You can imagine where they might be. Tired and at their wits end.

Perhaps this may sound more like a confession than a homily but I, too, am really tired. Tired of endless bad news that comes on television, whether it’s about another mass shooting or another politician being investigated for being corrupt. I’m tired of hearing about the impending global collapse of economies, generations stuck, incapable of climbing out of debt or even investing in housing. Hearing about drops in church attendance and vocations to the priesthood.

Tired of hearing of another parishioner who has just been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Tired of hearing of all the tragedies and downfalls that come our way in marriage and family life. Tired of fighting the same old habits in my life that I feel like I never get out of. That just continue to nag me and make feel like I haven’t made any progress. Tired of pulling the ball to left and shanking the ball to the right. I’m just tired. And I just came back from vacation which was great but I need more than that. I need what only God can give.

To refresh this woman, who had come begging for help, the Lord alluded to mysterious food that wasn’t meant for “dogs” meaning Gentiles. This food, also alludes to the very food that God has given the Israelites years before in the desert - manna. This food that God gave to the Israelites as they made their very difficult journey over 40 years from Egypt to the Promised Land. And like the mysterious food that God gave to Elijah to sustain him and the mysterious food that God gives to the Israelites in the desert and what Jesus alludes to in today’s Gospel is but foreshadowings of the food that God gives to you and me from this altar. This mysterious food is the Eucharist. And as he says in John chapter 6, that his flesh is real food and his blood is real drink.

We come to Mass quite simply to be fed. To be nourished. Not simply to encounter God in his word, although we do, but to receive God into our bodies so that we can receive his strength and his life and his grace for this often very difficult journey that is life.

Someone once remarked that it isn’t insignificant that Jesus changes bread and wine into his body and blood as opposed to bread and water. Bread and water, which seem to go more together in our eyes are a symbol of sustenance to get us through the day.

But Jesus doesn’t change water into his precious Blood, he changes wine. And wine is not a symbol of sustenance. Wine is a symbol of joy. The Lord means to tell us, even in the midst of this tedious and difficult journey, is joy. I’m counting on that today. All of us are at various stages of life. We come here with a multitude of needs. A multitude of burdens weighing upon us. We are concerned about ourselves. Our families. The Church. The world. We need the Lord to refresh us.

I think the Lord wants us to come to him today, like the Canaanite woman, with extraordinary faith. And to ask him to do what only he can do. To give to us the bread which enables us to have abundant life.

Sunday Mass begins at 11 a.m. with the sacrament of reconciliation at 10:15 a.m. Come pray with us at St. Michael Catholic Church, located at 1004 W. Gentry in Henryetta.