>>The home I grew up in on Fairview Street in Mount Prospect was less than a block away from the local grade school. And I can remember, even as a little boy, I loved going down to the grade school and going to the playground. Because on the playground there was the swing set and the slide, but my favorite was the monkey bars.

The monkey bars were built like a giant igloo. And I loved climbing up the monkey bars and standing on the very top, which was a very courageous thing to do. I can remember one day, playing on the monkey bars and as I was playing a dollar bill fell out of my pocket.

There was a woman who saw that, she lived in the neighborhood. And she said, “Where did you get that dollar from?”

I said, “Well, I got it from my grandfather.”

She said, “Well, what did you do to deserve that dollar?”

I said, “Nothing,” I said, “He gave it to me as a gift.”

“There are no free gifts in the world,” is what she told me. And I was disrespectful- I have to admit, I didn’t like the lady and we started bantering back and forth.

Me, a five year old kid with this neighborly lady. And I tried to show her that there were free gifts in the world, that you could get something without having to pay for it. And she said, “Absolutely not!” And I never forgot that. And it’s one of those questions I have lived with all my life.

Is anything truly free in this world? Interestingly, as I read the gospel this story came back to my memory. Jesus calls it right. Just before, in the gospel passage, Jesus had fed the 5,000. He gave them bread and fish. And now they were looking for Jesus to have a meal again. A free meal. And Jesus says to them, “You’re looking for me because you want another free meal.”

And then I thought: Are there free meals in life? And then, of course there are free meals in life. There’s free gifts in life. God’s grace. God’s love. God’s compassion. God’s mercy. Christ, who gives of His body and blood as we celebrate the eucharist today. All come as loving gifts from God to nourish our lives.

But there is a bit of a catch. And the catch is this…

God gives His gifts freely to us. His grace. His nourishment. His son. His eucharist that we celebrate. In turn and in gratitude, we are to share those gifts with others. That’s what it means to be a disciple of the Lord.