LIFE THROUGH HIM
Jesus meets us where we are, takes the conditions of our lives as they
are - even when our resources are depleted - and our Savior works through us.
In today's reading
from the first letter of St. John we read "in this is love: not that we
have loved God, but that He loved us." John teaches us that the love of
God was revealed by Jesus Christ, who was sent to the world "that we might
have life through Him."
In the Gospel of
Mark, the love of God is revealed in a number of prophetic biblical images that
are fulfilled in the words and actions of Jesus. In Ezekiel's prophecy, God's
love had been depicted as the compassionate care of a shepherd. Jesus Christ is
moved with pity for the people who are "like sheep without a
shepherd." Two loaves of bread and five fish couldn't possibly feed the
crowd. Even two hundred days' wages would not have been enough. It is easy to
imagine that the prospect of feeding the thousands depleted the disciples both
physically and financially. At this point, Jesus works a wonderful miracle. He
takes 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. Jesus meets
us where we are, takes the conditions of our lives as they are - even when our
resources are depleted - and our Savior works through us.
Points to Pray and
Ponder: We are not meant to do it alone, we are not an island. We live and have
are being, we do this as a community of faith. Jesus came to us with his
abundance and we are fed through the Eucharist - and so we "have life
through Him."