Daily Reflection – 2/13/2024
Sacred Scripture
The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” They concluded among themselves that it was because they had no bread. When he became aware of this he said to them, “Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?” They answered him, “Twelve.” “When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?” They answered him, “Seven.” He said to them, “Do you still not understand?” (Boyd Pitt
Reflection
In spite of all that the disciples had witnessed with Jesus, they seem to have lost the focus of His mission. Jesus gently rebukes them and seeks to bring them back to that his earthly mission.
They were not unlike us, were they?
There are times when our faith is challenged. There are times when God does not seem to hear us. There are times when the daily events wear us down and we wonder where God is.
When that happens, we must return to our faith in God. He never leaves but we do.How can we strengthen our resolve?
We need to pause and identify what it is that is gnawing at our faith. In most cases, it is as simple as reflecting on the priorities of our life. Health. Family. Love. Being “other directed.” To do that, we need to understand that we stand aside from the values of secular society. Our values are different. Our very words and actions are as well.
We live in this world, but we are not of this world.
Our very mission is to allow our beliefs and values to impel us to be sign posts of the love of Jesus Christ. He gave us the “leaven “of faith. He wants the leaven of faith to grow in us, so that we trust in him more and more. He should be the sum and the substance of our faith. For that to happen, we need to be aware of the Pharisees of our society. Some are inspired by evil. Others are caught up in their own self-importance. Some even set themselves by decreeing that we must follow their words and beliefs. And there are those who have never seen or heard of our beliefs, so they know no other way than to pattern their lives around the world they see.
Followers of the Way of Christ know that the moral commands he taught must be followed, indeed inculcated into our very lives. If we can do that then it is easier to identify the Pharisees of our life. We will find that the Pharisees are unrelenting in promoting their beliefs, their way of life, their words. We must stand firm in our beliefs and values.
To strengthen us, we have been given the Word and the sacraments. They must be central in our lives because the spirit of God resides in them. Take time each day to avail yourself of their power. Each day, go deep within yourself. Amidst your quiet and your silence, reflect on His words and His actions. They give us the moral compass of our lives, they strengthen us and, most of all, they fill us.
The insecure heart is pulled away from a healthy vision of life because it is not founded on rock. The soul that springs from the true foundation knows that as long as it has Christ and is doing His will, all is well.
Each of us should remember: It is God who created us and who has begun the work of our holiness. If He has brought us this far with only a modest amount of cooperation on our part, how much further could we go if we were to give him our total dedication? How much more good would flourish in our lives? How many problems would find God’s hand shaping them for our benefit?
Jesus asks us today:” Do you still not understand?” You and I know how we answer that.
Prayer of The Day
“Lord, grant me the grace to commit myself more to your will through a deeper trust and confidence in you.”
Daily Note
Mark is telling us, figuratively speaking, that the disciples’ own greatest problem was also vision—how they looked at what they saw. The cure is Jesus: his touch, his presence, his teaching, even his rebuke, but especially his persistent faithfulness with disciples who at times were nearsighted, farsighted, and myopic disciples.
