Wednesday 2^nd December – Wednesday of the 1^st week of Advent

Reflection: Matthew 15: 29-37

INADEQUATE LOAVES

Dearest friend, do you seem inextricably trapped in a critical state? Your academic performance so far appears to be a confirmation of folks’ belief that you are intellectually lame, you seem to be losing all sense of control on sexual gratification or substance abuse; probably it is an unyielding ill health or financial lack that threatens your future. Please don’t give up, for the Lord desires to give life to these dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-10) and grant you a new song.

If we focus primarily on our human abilities, we see impossibilities. But taking a divine perspective eliminates impossibility (Mark 9:23). This demands of us an unwavering faith and total obedience to God (James 1:6-7). Today, Jesus is asking you and I to bring our “inadequate loaves” (our whole life as it is with the inadequacies and shortcomings!) for divine transformation and multiplication.

By virtue of the Abrahamic covenant which you have access to in Christ Jesus, you are meant to be a blessing (Genesis 12:2). The Lord who removes all reproach (blindness, dumbness etc) as we read in the gospel reading of today seeks to do the same for you and thereafter, make you a solution to the needs around you (the hungry crowd, life’s difficulties etc).

As we get transformed and multiplied, we must guard against wastefulness and pride.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, please bring fruitfulness to the barrenness in my life and make my life a blessing to others to the glory of your name. Amen.

KNOW YOUR FAITH: CCC 2830 – “Our Bread”: The Father who gives us life cannot but give us the nourishment life requires – all appropriate goods and blessings, both material and spiritual. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus insists on the filial trust that cooperates with our Father’s providence. He is not inviting us to idleness, but wants to relieve us from nagging worry and preoccupation. Such is the filial surrender of the children of God:

To those who seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, he has promised to give all else besides. Since everything indeed belongs to God, he who possesses God wants for nothing, if he himself is not found wanting in God.

HIDE A TREASURE: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want” Psalm 23:1 RSV-CE

Today’s Readings: Isaiah 25:6-10; Psalm 23:1-6; Matthew 15:29-37