Tuesday,
February 17, 2015
6th Week in Ordinary Time 1st reading:
Genesis 6.5-8; 7.1-5, 10
Gospel: Mk 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 five thousand? How many baskets full of leftovers did you collect?” They answered, “Twelve.” “And having seven loaves for the four thousand, how many wicker baskets of leftovers did you collect?” They answered, “Seven.” Then Jesus said to them, “Do you still not understand?”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
While Jesus was preoccupied with matters of salvation, the disciples were worried about material provision. Thus when Jesus warned them of the hypocrisy of Herod and the Pharisees using the symbolism of yeast, they took the symbol literally and thought about bread. I was six years old when I went alone for a Sunday evening Mass just before supper at a chapel near our house. In the middle of the Mass I already felt very hungry. When the priest said, “Kordero sa Dyos” (Lamb of God), “Kordero” sounded like “kaldero” to me, and I took it as a signal that it was time to go out and eat. I was not as attentive to the food prepared at the altar – Jesus the Bread of Life.
Favorable presumption was on my side because I was still a child. Things go serious when adults do this child thing all their lives. Many adults have stagnated at the level of children in the way they are hooked to the gratification of the flesh. Lately we celebrated Valentine’s Day. St. Valentine must have been squirming in his grave over peoples’ use of his feast day to pursue self gratification in the name of love.
The Greeks have three terms for love, namely, eros (what we now understand as erotic love), philia (friendship) and agape (laying down one’s life for one’s friends). Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in his Encyclical Deus Caritas Est clarified that eros need not end up in sin because it can be purified so that the attention shifts from self satisfaction to the well being of the beloved. This requires a shift of preoccupation from the sensual to the spiritual. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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