Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 9, 11b-17
Jesus spoke to the crowds about the kingdom of God,
and he healed those who needed to be cured.
As the day was drawing to a close,
the Twelve approached him and said,
“Dismiss the crowd
so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms
and find lodging and provisions;
for we are in a deserted place here.”
He said to them, “Give them some food yourselves.”
They replied, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have,
unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people.”
Now the men there numbered about five thousand.
Then he said to his disciples,
“Have them sit down in groups of about fifty.”
They did so and made them all sit down.
Then taking the five loaves and the two fish,
and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing over them, broke them,
and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.
They all ate and were satisfied.
And when the leftover fragments were picked up,
they filled twelve wicker baskets.
Life and food
1) Communion. In the beginnings of Christianity communion was propagated in union. Every Sunday, Christians united to pray with God in their midst, because they knew that where two or more gathered in his name, Jesus would be there. It was in hard, difficult moments that the Church took refuge in the Eucharist. Remember that at the beginning, the persecution was tremendous. Mass was celebrated in cemeteries and in secret. So, do not be alarmed by present-day attacks on the Church; we are already experts in this, we have gone through worse things. And the Eucharist continues to unite us and give us life. Let us always go to the Eucharist so that we may be in communion.
2) Thanksgiving. Be grateful for everything. Many times we forget to be grateful to life and to God, because life is not only norms, it’s also action. Today, as Catholics, we are asked for more action and less blah blah blah. So that this action may shed grace on all, and be a form of thanksgiving to the Lord.
3) Sacrifice: Finally, the Eucharist asks us to make sacred what we do every day in life. Because life is not life if there is no sacrifice, and the Eucharist is God’s sacrifice because of love. What about you, have you ever made sacrifices for love?
God bless you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Never forget that Heaven is our goal.
