Gospel: February 15, 2025
February 15, 2025 (Saturday)
5th Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 1 (Green/White)
Blessed Virgin Mary
Ps 90:2, 3-4abc, 5-6, 12-13
In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
1st Reading: Genesis 3:9-24*
Gospel: Mark 8:1-10
Soon afterward, Jesus was in the midst of another large crowd, that obviously had nothing to eat. So, he called his disciples and said to them, “I feel sorry for these people, because they have been with me for three days and now have nothing to eat. If I send them to their homes hungry, they will faint on the way; some of them have come a long way.” His disciples replied, “Where, in a deserted place like this, could we get enough bread to feed these people?” He asked them, “How many loaves have you?” and they answered, “Seven.” Then he ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Taking the seven loaves and giving thanks, he broke them, and handed them to his disciples to distribute. And they distributed them among the people. They also had some small fish. So Jesus said a blessing, and asked that these be shared as well. The people ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Now those who had eaten were about four thousand in number. Jesus sent them away, and immediately got into the boat with his disciples, and went to the region of Dalmanutha.
Reflection
“God unites himself to us.”
Adam and Eve are cast out of Eden to prevent them eating from the Tree of Life so that they would not be able to add immortality to their capabilities. And yet, every Christian seeks a knowledge of goodness and to reach eternal life. So, why did God prevent Adam and Eve from obtaining both? It is because we depend on God for our life and our knowledge of goodness, and so to try to possess these on our own would be to deny our fundamental need for God. In our own day, secular culture tries to define its own truth and morals, and biotechnology tries to defy ageing and death, but they don’t achieve what they promise. However, God does not leave us in our sin and pride. We may have left the garden of divine union, but God unites himself to us in our poverty through becoming one of us, so that he might give us eternal life. And so, Jesus, the Son of God, turns the cross, a tree of death, into the new Tree of Life. It is by his cross and resurrection that we are set free and given the hope of eternal life.
