Let me introduce you to Louise and Phil Decker. Louise and Phil are the caretakers of the Gros Morne National Park campgrounds in Newfoundland. Every morning, Louise is up at 6, and goes to every campground and rest area to clean the washrooms. Phil goes around and empties all the garbage cans. Then they both sit down and sort the garbage, taking out things people toss like batteries, and separating out the recycling. Phil is a retired fisherman, who still goes back to sea on a seasonal basis, and brings in enough for them to eat over the winter. Louise, of her own volition, has begun teaching a course to children in the campgrounds, about the native plants and animals of Newfoundland, the lives of those who fish for a living, and teaches the kids how to make certain kinds of local food. In the early spring, Louise cleans every camp site, making sure the fire pits are cleared, cutting the weeds down, sanding and painting the picnic tables. The day we sat with them, Louise had just finished a class with 39 kids. They own a tiny house, really a hut, on the property at Broom Point. Parks Canada wants to make the whole point a historical site, so they offered to buy Louise and Phil’s property, for $3000 - and told them they could move the house off if they wished.
Let me tell you a little about the house. Like many people, this house has been in the family for several generations. It was not originally a year-round living accommodation, but was there for families to live in during the fishing season. Fishing families would come to the point every year, when their fishing permits allowed, in order to work. They processed, dried, and canned the fish right on the premises. The salt fish, and the canned salmon, was picked up by larger boats which took it to market. This year, Phil and Louise made 50c a pound on their lobster catch. Next time you buy lobster in the supermarket, look at the price.
Norio and I sat with them in our campsite this July, over a glass of wine, and talked about life in Newfoundland. Needless to say we were impressed with the passion and the optimism of these two people.
Louise is a tiny woman, but don’t be fooled. She is a formidable presence, and passionate about her life. Get her talking about how the Canadian government is killing off the fisheries - and the lives of many people - by selling out to large corporations. Louise is smart, savvy, and hard-working. So is Phil. They love life, and despite their criticisms of the way things are done, and what is done to them, they have a solid faith that what they DO have is given to them, by God, to use well. They don’t have much, but if you asked them I am guessing they would say they have enough.
I am telling this story because Louise and Phil epitomise for me what it means to be on a life journey. There have been times when these two were in a wilderness. Yet they survived, and grew, even if all they had was bread and water.
In todays first reading, we meet the Israelites, newly freed, and looking forward to going to the land they have been promised. In the first throes of real freedom, they were happy to be anywhere but Egypt, and they sang and danced their joy! Then, of course, as the days went on reality set in. The small stocks of food they had brought along were gone, and there was little if anything to eat in the wilderness. There was no wildlife, no large body of water, no edible plant life. The people became hungry and thirsty; the manna they were receiving didn’t last long, and water from a rock was hardly sufficient. Bread, and water: that was their diet in the wilderness. It began to feel like they were in prison again.
Eventually, of course, they complained about what God had provided, and complained against
Moses. They wanted to go back to Egypt, where they were slaves but had good food. God set them free from one kind of oppression just to kill them off in the desert? If they were going to die anyway, better to do it back in Egypt where at least they could do it in relative comfort. They wanted more: more food, more water, more variety in their diet. More.
They sound like us, don’t they? Like those ancient Israelites, we want /more. /We want more variety, more choices. So we can now order our fish deep-fried, broiled, baked, grilled, or blackened. We want to be able to eat all kinds of foods whenever we want it.
Norio and I have an ongoing discussion - I won’t call it argument - about food when he is in Cuba. After five weeks, he doesn’t want to eat rice and peas any more. He can’t find Japanese noodles. There is some variety in the food but not what he gets here in Toronto, where we can eat anything we want any time. My comment is that the Cubans have to eat that every day.
And that is where Louise and Phil come in. They don’t have the luxury of Japanese or Chinese or Korean or Thai or Greek or Italian, or whatever. Their diet is mainly fish; given all the wild berries we picked around the island, and the people we met picking them, that probably they get a lot of their fruit that way. And yet they are satisfied, and they are happy people.
John’s Gospel this week begins with the story of the feeding of a large crowd of people with five loaves of barley bread and two fish. The crowd is dazzled! They want him Jesus to feed them anytime, anywhere, as much as they want. But Jesus eludes them, refusing to be known simply as the one who gives them all they want on demand.
Yes, I can offer you bread, he says, but what you are looking for is bread and water to satisfy your soul as well as your body. God gives true bread, the bread of life. In me you see God, and you see the bread and water which will satisfy.
It’s no accident that bread and grains are at the top of the food pyramid; they provide
great nourishment. Bread of the right kind can be packed and carried on long treks. We need bread, and we need water, to be well and healthy.
We are invited in these stories to trust in the God who feeds us what we need to live, and calls us to gratitude for life. When we eat the bread of life, when we drink the living water God offers, we can thrive, and be satisfied. That’s why Louise and Phil impressed me so much. From our point of view, they probably have nothing. Life is a struggle, every single day, to make enough to live on. And yet, they are satisfied, and they have enough. Bread, water, and fish - the three things Jesus used to demonstrate what really matters in life. May it be so.
Acknowledgements:
1. Louise and Phil Decker, Gros Morne National Park
2. Material from the sermon “Thriving on Bread and Water” by Randy Thompson.
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