GO AND FEED MY PEOPLE!

Last Sunday, we heard about Jesus presenting Himself as the bread of life - the ONE who can fill the hunger and thirst of the people. Today’s gospel is almost similar to last Sunday’s but this time I want to change focus on the challenge of being the provider for others instead of the one being provided.
 
The question is: How can we be the provider of others’ needs? 
 
It is always a challenge to be others-centered and look after the needs of others first before working on our priorities. In fact, in many instances, we try to save first for ourselves before we go out and address the requests and needs of other people. For, in reality, we are humans trained to support and preserve our own. 
 
While we were in our mother’s womb, we were trained and introduced to personal survival and protection. And as we grew, we learned and taught how to take care of ourselves by eating good food, long hours of sleep, etc. It is our designed nature. It is somehow embedded in our system that we have to protect and provide for ourselves, to take care of our own. In some instances, we were taught by our parents and other people around us to respect, help, and love other people. But somehow that becomes our second priority since our main concern and focus is ourselves.
 
This is where our Christian life comes in. Jesus taught us the untruth, the UNCONVENTIONAL in the sense that He redeveloped a new way of looking at reality. He showed us that THE WAY TO LIFE is by taking care of others. 
 
In every celebration of the Holy Eucharist, the last instruction or words of the priest to the people is: “The mass is ended. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” To love and serve the Lord means to follow Jesus’ commandment to go after those who are lost, the unloved, and the marginalized and take care of them. That instruction is a reminder that we have a responsibility to fulfill, a mission to pursue and live every day. It is not simply a message of comfort but a life to live.
 
We know that God has always been good to us. Every moment, we are blessed and cared for by God. That is not a question at all. We all know that and believe that whatever circumstances in life, whether we are having difficulty or not, God’s presence is always present. 
 
That reality of God in our lives calls us therefore to go out of ourselves, to go out of our comforts, to go out into the deep – at times to be rejected, or maybe to be soaked in blood, to be wet and muddy, to smell like garbage, or to be judged by others even those close to us, simply to care and love others before ourselves.
 
That is not easy! To go out of ourselves, to lower our ego, to forget our prestige for the sake of others is overly close to impossible. Let’s admit it. It’s hard. But by God’s grace, some people were able to do that, to choose to walk that path. 
 
Our prayer is that while doing what is best for ourselves, may we not overlook our life as meant to serve and care for others. Let’s go out and do good every day for others. 

by   Fr. Rock Saniel, OMI