LIFE THROUGH HIM
He meets us
where we are and takes the conditions of our lives as they are, even when our
resources are depleted, and He works through us.
In today's reading
from the first Letter of St. John we hear, "In this is love: not that we
have loved God, but that He loved us" (1 Jn 4:10). John teaches us that
the love of God was revealed by Jesus Christ Who was sent into the world so "that
we might have life through Him" (1 Jn 4:9).
In the Gospel of
Mark, the love of God is revealed in a number of biblical images that are taken
up and "translated" into the words and actions of Jesus. In Ezekiel's
prophecy, God's love is depicted as the compassionate care of a shepherd. Jesus
Christ is moved with pity for the people who are "like sheep without a
shepherd." Five loaves of bread and two fish couldn't feed a crowd. Two
hundred days' wages aren't enough to hire a caterer to feed the thousands. It
is easy to imagine that the disciples are depleted both physically and
financially. But even here, Jesus works a miracle. He meets the disciples where
they are - with their limited resources - and turns next to no food into an
abundance.
This is how Jesus works
in us, too. He meets us where we are and takes the conditions of our lives as
they are, even when our resources are depleted, and He works through us. We are
not meant to do it alone; we are not an island. We live and have our being not
as an entity unto ourselves, but as a community of faith. Jesus comes to us
with His abundance and we are fed through the Eucharist. And so, we "have
life through Him."
In the Responsorial
Psalm we acclaim, "May He rule from sea to sea, from the River to the ends
of the earth" (Ps 72:8). Amen.