Gospel: Matthew
14:13-21
When
Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, he withdrew in a boat to a
deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot
from their towns. When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was
moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick. When it was evening, the
disciples approached him and said, "This is a deserted place and it is
already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy
food for themselves." He said to them, "There is no need for them to
go away; give them some food yourselves." But they said to him, "Five
loaves and two fish are all we have here." Then he said, "Bring them
here to me," and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking
the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the
blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave
them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the
fragments left over– twelve wicker baskets full. Those who ate were about five
thousand men, not counting women and children.
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Reflection:
Once in a
while we need to withdraw from the madding crowd to be by ourselves only and
God. We need these regular quite moments with God for us to discern His
presence in our lives.
Upon
learning of the beheading of His relative John the Baptist Jesus went to a
deserted place by himself for personal reflections. He was sad over the death
of His relative and He wanted to be re-harged and be strengthened by God.
We also
need these brief interludes of peace and quite in which there’s nobody else
except us and God. And it’s on these
quite moments that we will strongly feel the presence of the Lord in our lives.
Who invite us all who are thirsty and weary to go to Him for He will strengthen
us.
Let us
not get hooked on the deafening environment of this noisy world wherein money,
possessions and power rules and even worshipped by many as God. Let us dig
deeper into our spiritual lives and let us discover that beneath our mortal
life is the Lord God who wishes to spiritually strengthen us with His infinite
love.
After His
solitary recollection Jesus was again ready to continue His mission His first act
is to cure the sick who were following Him.
The
disciples wanted to get rid of them that’s why they said to Jesus: “Dismiss the
crowd for it’s getting late already (Matthew 14:15). However, Jesus told them: “There
is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves (Matthew 14:16).”
Then the miracle of the loaves and fish happened; there were only five loaves
and two fish but Jesus was able to feed more than five thousand and there were
plenty to spare.
How did
this miracle happen? It happened because of the generosity and love of Jesus if
we are stingy with what we have, if we don’t want to give even if we have
plenty. Jesus is not like many of us.
Jesus is
forever generous and loving to us that is why out of His generosity and love He
instituted the Eucharist or the Holy Mass and up to this very day He continuous
to feed us with His Body and Blood when we receive Him in the Sacrament of Holy
Communion.
Let us
learn from the generosity and love of Jesus, let us forever give, let us all
remember that it is in our generosity and love that we will receive. - Marino J. Dasmarinas
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