12TH FEBRUARY 2022
GOD’S PROVIDENCE
The miracle about the feeding of the crowd or the multiplication of the bread is a very important event in the Gospel of Mark and Mathew. The gospel of today talks about this great miracle of Jesus of feeding the crowd with seven bread and few small fish. This story shows that God loves; He knows our situation and provides for us, his children, his people. We can see that from the beginning of creation. After creating Adam and Eve, He provided for them food to eat and enjoy in the Garden of Eden (Gn 2:8-10). We also see how God provided food for the Israelites people in the desert when He brought them out of Egypt. In the wilderness, God, every day, dropped a brand new food, called Manna, from heaven. God worked this miracle every day (Ex 6:1-34). And today, Jesus has given us his body and blood, bread of life, as our spiritual food four our spiritual growth (Jn 6:35).
Mark shows Jesus just continues and brings into fulfilment what God has already begun from the beginning. People were with Jesus to listen and to be with Him. That shows that they were in need of God and His Word. Jesus taught them for three days and at the end he felt they were in need of material food. That is why he provided them more than enough food. What can we learn from this Gospel?
The first point is about Jesus’ Compassion (vv 1-3). Jesus has been with the people in the region of Decapolis, which is a place of the Gentiles, outside of Jews region. These are not the first people to whom He was sent but he feels companionate with them. He has compassion of them because He feels these people need and expect something from Him. To put into action, He started teaching them and revealed to them the Gospel, God’s plan for Salvation. And the second action He did is to give them some material support so that they may gain strength in their journey going home. The same for us, our compassion to others should not remain a feeling. It has to lead to action. We have to do something for them if we can still do. All that is nothing else than love.
The second point is the Provision of Jesus (vv 4-7). This is the Characteristic of God’s generosity. He always shares and gives and expected nothing back. Here in the Gospel, Jesus also asks his disciples to be generous; to share what they have. They had very littles things provided for them but now they have to give out to the crowd. The lesson here is that we have to imitate the generosity of God. He gives everything to us for free. We, in our turn, has to give and share to those who are most in need. God does not look at the quantity we share but at the quantity because out of the littles things we have and give, God can make and bring them into a great abundance.
The third point is the Satisfaction (vv. 8-10). This is the consequence of God’s work and presence in our life. Jesus, out of seven loaves and few small fish, satisfied big crowd; and there were still lots of left over. When Jesus provides, he gives more than we are expecting. The lesson is that God’s providence is always more than enough. Whatever we need from Christ, He over-provides. He totally, and fully, satisfies us abundantly.
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