Today’s Gospel Text:
After
this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of
Tiber'i-as. 2 And a multitude followed him,
because they saw the signs which he did on those who were diseased. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain,
and there sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of
the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and
seeing that a multitude was coming to him, Jesus said to Philip, "How are
we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?" 6 This he said to test him, for
he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, "Two
hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a
little." 8 One of his disciples, Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother, said to him, 9 "There is a lad here who
has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are they among so many?" 10 Jesus said, "Make the
people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place; so the men sat
down, in number about five thousand. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and
when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also
the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their
fill, he told his disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over, that
nothing may be lost." 13 So they gathered them up and
filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, left by those
who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign
which he had done, they said, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come
into the world!" 15 Perceiving then that they were
about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to
the mountain by himself. John
6:1-15
Reflection: The
Christian life is always a testing because our God tests us so that we prove
our faith and are disciplined in his ways.
In
other words, He does it so that we may not be losers of the eternity which he has prepared for
those who trust him; for trusting in his promises we gain an entry into the
eternal life which he has prepared for us.
This
may sound rather negative but we should never forget that the God who tests us
will never test us beyond our means and never do so unless he has given us a taste
of his goodness and love, which includes his holy grace.
(cfr. I Cor. 10:13)
In
the gospel we see Jesus testing the faith of the disciples to see how much they
have learned from him and how much they will endure the test of faith and what
actions they will take, whether in faith or will their actions be based on pure human
reasoning’s.
There are many prominent figures in the scriptures that
experienced a testing of their faith and thus may be the turmoil and struggle
thereof; one such was Abraham. Thus he received the blessings and became the
father of many nations on account of his steadfast faith.
We
have Job as another wonderful example of such testing and he never really gave
up on his belief in God: “… the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;
blessed be the name of the Lord."
Job 1:21
The
letter to the Hebrew, in the eleventh chapter gives us a list of all the Old
Testament characters that endured all things and did not give up on their faith
in spite of all odds.
In the Gospel passage we see clearly see that when Jesus tests us, he does it so that we may grow through learning.
Prayer: Lead us not to the test but deliver us from all
evil.
DD = Dedicated
Discipleship: Come grow
in the Lord with us
