Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION
	The feeding of the five thousand (and more) by the seaside is certainly the most famous of picnics. The miracle of the loaves reminds us of the earlier miracle of the wine at Cana. Like the Cana miracle, this one begins with human initiative as the small child responds to the hunger of the crowd by offering a seemingly meager gift. What could be more appropriate for deep summer than a Gospel account of a joyful picnic with Jesus and the generosity of a child at the center?
	The coming month of August has always been a time for delight in the bounty of the earth, for picnics by the sea, dinner under the stars, for porch and rooftop, for parks and beaches, and enjoying the best of local crops. August’s festivals of Transfiguration and Assumption have long given Christians the best of excuses for feasting on the abundance of summer: corn, tomatoes, pesto, bowls of fresh fruit. Picnics are a sign of the welcome table of God: always room for one more, always plenty to share, always a place of laughter and story-telling and always speaking to us of our deepest longings. Don’t let August pass by without a picnic!
—Rev. James Field