Gospel: February 18, 2025
February 18, 2025 (Tuesday)
6th Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 2 / (Green)
Ps 29:1a & 2, 3ac-4, 3b & 9c-10
The Lord will bless his people with peace.
1st Reading: Genesis 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10
Gospel: Mark 8:14-21
The disciples had forgotten to bring more bread, and had only one loaf with them in the boat. Then Jesus warned them, “Keep your eyes open, and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.” And they said to one another, “He saw that we have no bread.” Aware of this, Jesus asked them, “Why are you talking about the loaves you are short of? Do you not see or understand? Are your minds closed? Have you eyes that don’t see and ears that don’t hear? And do you not remember when I broke the five loaves among 5,000? How many baskets full of leftovers did you collect?” They answered, “Twelve.” “And having distributed seven loaves to the 4,000, how many wicker baskets of leftovers did you collect?” They answered, “Seven.” Then Jesus said to them, “Do you still not understand?”
Reflection:
“The Lord provides.”
Yeast is very useful, yet, apart from the parable of the leaven (Mt 13:33), Scripture mostly uses yeast as a negative image. It doesn’t take much yeast to transform the dough and make it rise. In a negative sense, this is applied to attitudes of Herod and the Pharisees. Jesus is saying that their attitude to life and religion is devastating, in that it only takes a little of it to damage our relationship with God, by shifting our attention solely to earthly things or to a misuse of spiritual things. The Pharisees’ hearts were hardened to their Savior, so they didn’t recognize him. Their minds were closed to his call to conversion, too, since they thought that salvation could be obtained simply by fulfilling the religious laws, without also taking care to offer a sacrifice of a “contrite heart” that delights in the “joy of [God’s] salvation” (Ps 51: 19, 14). Here Jesus is warning his disciples not to have the same attitudes. The miracle of the loaves and fish reminds us that the Lord provides. In the challenges and activities of life, may we keep our minds fixed on the Lord and not forget his loving care.
