The Catholic Calendar for Saturday, February 11, 2006
Saturday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Our Lady of Lourdes

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
1 Kings 12:26-32; 13:33-34
Psalm 106:6-6, 19-22
Mark 8:1-10

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

"His heart was moved with pity for the crowd. . ."

The heart of Jesus was moved with pity for the crowd that had gathered to hear Him teach because they had no food. This was one of the occasions for feeding the multitudes with the sparse provender scraped up by the apostles, but perhaps more importantly it is one of the first signs of the Eucharist.

Last week we heard that His heart was moved with pity because they were "sheep without a shepherd." This week we hear that they are starving sheep--no food. This Good Shepherd is indeed Shepherd, and those these sheep do not know it, He will become food.

He is our food. His heart is moved with pity for us because though many live in the richest nation on Earth they starve to death spiritually. They have no food, they have no sustenance because they rely upon their own poor provision. But Jesus is our food, we need not starve. Jesus came to us to become our life, from its very foundations. He is our food, our light, our life, our joy, our love, our will, our everything.

And today we begin to glimpse where it started in the human mission of Jesus. He saw and recognized the physical hunger of those who listened, and He saw our own coming spiritual hunger--our starvation should we choose not to avail ourselves of the great bounty He provides.

But we are offered our great feast in our great Lord. We need merely accept it.

- JuandelaCruz
(sriddle415 at yahoo dot com)

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