Second Friday of Easter « Living Scripture

From the Word of the Day  Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?

                                                John 6: 5                                                                       

How should we live this Word 

The crowd presses aroundJesus, hungering for His word of truth and indifferent to their own physical needs. Jesusobserves them as the lines increase.  He then turns to His disciples and asks them an unexpected and disturbing question, "Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?" 

Caught by surprise,Philip tries to make Him see the absurdity of His question.  But Jesus seeks only to provoke.  It is certainly humanly impossible to satisfy the various hungers that torment the world.  There is the hunger for peace, for justice, for solidarity, for love. Jesuswell knows this but He only seeks to make them aware of the hunger that torments humanity as well as the impossibility of satisfying it with poor human means. 

Moreover, God does not ignore our hunger.  He poses very precise demands.  His disciples must open their eyes to them, must feel the torment of their impotence, without however being blocked by it.  They must use their resources no matter how limited, inadequate, or insufficient.  Then they must have the courage to trust the One who can multiply them.  This is what the saints we admire did, forgetting that we too are called to the same holiness.  Through their hands, good works flourished although they were as limited and impotent as we are, but they knew how to entrust themselves to God.  They put as His disposal all they were and had and with that little, God worked marvels. 

Today in my pause for silent contemplation, I will seek to see differently the various hungers that torment my contemporaries.  They are not the responsibility of politicians, of those who have money and power.  They are mine and they personally question me.

Lord, open my eyes and my heart in the face of the suffering of others.  Do not allow me to close myself egotistically in the fact that I can do little or nothing.  Help me to be ready to make myself an available instrument in Your hands.

The voice of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta 

I do not think I have special qualities and I expect nothing for the work I do.  It is His work.  I am like a small pencil in His hands, nothing more.  He thinks.  He writes.  The pencil has nothing to do with this.  The pencil only needs to be used.