Today's First Reading

[Fish and Bread]

So, today's first reading in the Roman Catholic Church is essentially the second paragraph of what I'm quoting. The first paragraph is the first reading in the Episcopal Church and in some other churches and denominations that use the Revised Common Lectionary (An ecumenical lectionary that is similar, but not identical, to the Roman lectionary), with the second paragraph as an optional addition. It's interesting that in theory you could go to an Episcopalian Eucharist, hear the first paragraph, and then walk over to a Roman Catholic mass and hear the very next paragraph in the bible- same book, same chapter. I feel the first paragraph adds context and a new dimension to the second, and that they should both be read, but what do I know?

Plus, as a guy who uses the handle "Fish and Bread", I never get tired of stories about God producing endless supplies of food.

1 Kings 17:8-16 (17-24) RCL lectionary/NRSV bible

The word of the Lord came to Elijah, saying, "Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you." So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, "Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink." As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, "Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand." But she said, "As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die." Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth." She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

[After this, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house at Zarephath, became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. She then said to Elijah, "What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!" But he said to her, "Give me your son." He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed. He cried out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?" Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, let this child's life come into him again." The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, "See, your son is alive." So the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth."]

Source:
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp5_RCL.html

1 Kings 17:17-24 Roman Catholic lectionary/NAB bible

Elijah went to Zarephath of Sidon to the house of a widow.
The son of the mistress of the house fell sick,
and his sickness grew more severe until he stopped breathing.
So she said to Elijah,
“Why have you done this to me, O man of God?
Have you come to me to call attention to my guilt
and to kill my son?”
Elijah said to her, “Give me your son.”
Taking him from her lap, he carried the son to the upper room
where he was staying, and put him on his bed.
Elijah called out to the LORD:
“O LORD, my God,
will you afflict even the widow with whom I am staying
by killing her son?”
Then he stretched himself out upon the child three times
and called out to the LORD:
“O LORD, my God,
let the life breath return to the body of this child.”
The LORD heard the prayer of Elijah;
the life breath returned to the child’s body and he revived.
Taking the child, Elijah brought him down into the house
from the upper room and gave him to his mother.
Elijah said to her, “See! Your son is alive.”
The woman replied to Elijah,
“Now indeed I know that you are a man of God.
The word of the LORD comes truly from your mouth.”

Source:
http://usccb.org/bible/readings/060516.cfm

 

[Fish and Bread]

By the way, true story, about 11 years ago I was sort of couch surfing, drifting from house to house with a few dollars in my pocket, but no source of income. One Friday in Lent, I had gone to a library and checked out a book on the life of Jesus. So, I'm wandering around with this book in my hand just taking some time away from the place I was staying, because the situation with the folks I was staying with was a bit tense at the time. Anyway, I was preserving my money, but I stumbled upon a place offering all you can eat fish and chips at a low cost and figured it was a good use of money, because I'd be sitting there for a while, I'm a big eater, and I was quite hungry (Needless to say several rounds of fish were served to me that day ).

So, there I am, on a Friday in Lent, a person living in relative poverty, with an endless supply of fish sitting at a table reading a book about Jesus. It doesn't get more Catholic than that! Actually, given that I also have an Episcopalian background as well as a Roman Catholic background, the fact that fish and chips is an English dish sort of adds to it summing me up spiritually. If only I had a beer in my hands, it would have gotten the Irish bit of Irish Catholic, too. I can say that, because my ancestry is 3/4 Irish Catholic- big red beard.

This was after I registered here on CF with this screen name, by the way. So, it's not an origin story. But it could have been a good one. Maybe not rocket ship from a dying planet, Last Son of Krypton, good- but, hey, I'm not Superman.

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

Sounds like you've been through some hard times, Fish.
So currently not in poverty I hope?

 

[tadoflamb]

If only I had a beer in my hands,

Can I buy you one?

 

[Fish and Bread]

Sounds like you've been through some hard times, Fish.
So currently not in poverty I hope?

Well, I'm still below the poverty line, but it's not as bad as the old days. I have a steady if low income, an apartment, a dog, a beer in my hand, a few electronic gadgets, etc.. Even debt (Which in a sense is good as it implies access to credit). It's sort of higher end poverty versus the lower end poverty I used to be in. I remember many years ago once having to tell a beggar I couldn't give him money because I might be on the opposite street corner in a few weeks- and when I said it, it was a real possibility. Things have stabilized a lot since then, which isn't to say I don't have any economic concerns or worries, of course.

To be honest, it's sometimes hard to know how much detail I want to go into or how positive/negative I want to sound in reply to posts of this nature. In many ways, life feels miserable, but it's all relative, of course. I'm a pessimist at heart, and a lot of things worry me, some of them about my economic status or future, and yet I realize some people would like to be in my situation to some degree.

I think growing up, I thought I'd be a healthy person with a middle class income and a standalone house and a wife and maybe some kids and a dog. Then I got to a point where I thought I'd be unhealthy, homeless, and starving. I'm somewhere in between those two options now, which makes it both bad and good. I'm much more likely to fall down than up, but falling down is not a sure thing. My health is bad, and I'm in a lot of pain, but I'm not dying or missing limbs or sight or hearing. I stopped dating years ago and will likely never fulfill my real dream of marrying someone I love and settling down, but I did get to date some people and have some meaningful relationships years ago that were beyond what I expected at a certain point (I didn't date in high school, and had about eight relationships of a few months or more in my late teens and early 20s, and I'm fairly liberal in matters of human sexuality- so at least I had the experiences at some point. If God has a problem with that, he can take it up with me and my answer is going to be "Where was my wife?". I still think I did the right thing consummating some relationships, not in every case, but in several of them. I really cared about some of those people.), which is something. However, as I got older, I could no longer find people I wanted to date who wanted to date me, for predictable reasons I used to describe to people at length when I was a little younger, that all came true and more.

Changing gears a bit- I'm hard to get along with, apartment living isn't really for me, because it puts people all around me in my face, tripping over each other when we're outside basically, people doing obnoxious things to screw with me, shared walls and sometimes ceilings/floors spreading noise, etc.. A lot of conflict comes from that, and anxiety. I'd love to have that stand alone house, but so would a lot of people. I don't really have the type of choice I'd like over location- I needed a real good deal and had one without a real dropoff I could take when I had to move a few years ago, which is often the case- one goes where one can.

Coming to terms with not being marriage material was very difficult for me and I'm not sure I'll ever really accept in my heart, especially since I'm not really dating material either anymore, but I at least was finally able to eventually say screw it and buy myself the dog I was holding off on to keep myself available to the non-dog liking women. So, figuring out what you can get in life instead of bashing your head against the wall pursuing what you can't makes a sort of pragmatic sense that improves my life in some tangible ways. And, of course, I would probably in truth, had I married, wound up having a lot of verbal conflict and difficulties that might have made me wish I hadn't. Not that I had a choice. It'll always make me sad that I couldn't make that aspect of life happen, not even to the middle ground point of being able to have a serially monogamous stream of girlfriends or whatever long-term.

And the physical pain is the physical pain. I don't know what more to say. I wish they'd prescribe more pain killers, but apparently you've got to be dying.

There's a lot more to this that I'm not going to go into, because I've learned the hard way a few times that putting it all out there online means people can and will debate your life with you. Everyone always thinks they have solutions that you didn't think of, or thinks you're an idiot, or whatever; or uses stuff against you later, which is kind of understandable. There are a lot of factors which I prefer to keep very private these days. This post is a lot further than I'm normally willing to go. I'm being intentionally vague to some degree for a reason (Well, reasons).

I will say that when I read certain things about a guy who's obviously having trouble on another forum, I sometimes want to go "I've seen the pictures you've posted of your beautiful wife and your family, suck it up.", but, you know, people say the same thing about me over different things. People's personal pain is their personal pain. Even rich celebrities deal with stuff, and it's real to them. I do feel for the guy's alcoholism. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't drink the occasional beer. It's a gift that I can do that in relative moderation, genuinely. Some people can't though no fault of their own, and that sounds like a really tough burden to me.

Can I buy you one?

If we ever find ourselves in the same place at the same time, sure! I rarely turn down a free beer.

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

Fish and Bread
Can I just say a huge thanks for your post and ruthless honesty. Now I can picture you more realistically than before. Your pain and suffering are unfortunate but maybe they contribute to your solid integrity and individualism. I have been far luckier than you in life and I don't say that to sound superior. I mean I have been blessed by nice parents to begin with and then nice partner I've had for 25 years. No kids but one gorgeous dog. Health is good at the moment. Income is low to average but we have no mortgage which another blessing. And we live in Australia. my life ticks a lot of lucky boxes. Hopefully your luck will change soon. In the past I had bouts of "near skid row" but somehow someone appeared to save my butt. Cheers!

 

[Colin]

Thanks , Fish and Bread , for what you have said .

It prompts me to count my blessings .