A Friend Who Involves Me
by Fr. David M. Knight
Saturday, February 10, 2024
Week V in Ordinary Time; Memorial of St. Scholastica, Virgin
Lectionary No. 334
1Kings 12:26 to 13:34; Psalm 106; Mark 8:1-1
"My heart is moved with pity… How many loaves do you have?" Mark 8:2, 5
Jesus was about to feed 4000 people, using his divine power. But first he asked his disciples, “How many loaves do you have?” They had seven. He used them.
Jesus involves his friends in everything he does. God likes to act through humans. That is what “sacraments” are: human actions through which God does things he could do without them. For example, people can be reborn through “Baptism of desire,” without the physical sacrament. And God forgives anyone who repents, with or without Confession. But Jesus likes to gives grace through human actions.
Jesus became human to act through a human body, and still acts through his body, the Church. Not just in sacraments. He continues his mission by acting with, in, and through all of us in our daily lives. He involves himself in everything we do—to teach, heal, and nourish—and involves us in everything he does.
At Mass Jesus joins us to himself on the cross, in his most personal, passionate act of love. With him we offer our “flesh for the life of the world”— to make him present, as his body, wherever we are (John 6:51; Romans 12:1).
Friendship is interaction. Interact with Jesus and he will involve you in enhancing life.
ACTION: Offer your body to Jesus every morning, as you did in Baptism.
PRAYER: “Lord, live this day with me, live this day in me, live this day through me.”
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
