Daily reflection _ life through Him

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.
Deacon John Ruscheinsky
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."