Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 15, 2020
In those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, Jesus called his disciples and said to them, “I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way—and some of them have come from a great distance.”
His disciples replied, “How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?”
He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.”
Then he ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground; and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them to the crowd. They had also a few small fish; and after blessing them, he ordered that these too should be distributed.
They ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Now there were about four thousand people.
He sent them away and got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.
I don’t imagine that I would be alone in saying that I have not recently found myself three days into a desert journey, surrounded by sand and scorching heat, desperate to fill my stomach. However, I also don’t imagine that I would be alone in admitting that I do sometimes find myself three days into a workweek, surrounded by unread emails and unforeseen surprises, desperate to fill my soul. It struck me that Christ’s response in the physical desert continues to speak to us in our professional or spiritual deserts.
When the disciples ask Jesus how He is going to take care of all of these people he doesn’t give them an answer but instead asks them, “What do you have to offer?” They respond and I can just imagine Jesus smiling to himself and thinking, “That will be enough.” It will do me some good to remember that response during my next attempt at prayer in the midst of a chaotic week:
“How can you expect me to find time to pray in the midst of everything else that’s on my plate? You’ve given me a growing family, a job that I love, a broken sewer line under the kitchen floor, and only so much energy.”
“But what do you have to offer?”
“I don’t know, maybe seven minutes.”
“That will be enough.”
Prayer
Jesus, Lamb of God, you call us to walk in your footsteps, by taking up our daily crosses, and giving our lives away in love. Help us to accept our daily burdens on behalf of others as expressions of love for you and your people. Help us to see how our acts of selfless love, inspired by you, bring your saving presence into the world. Give us the strength and generosity of spirit to carry our burdens joyfully. Amen.
Saint of the Day
On the fifteenth of February, 2015, twenty-one Christians were beheaded in Libya on the shores of the Mediterranean by members of the extremist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Twenty of the men beheaded were Coptic Christians. Coptic Christianity is an ancient branch of Christianity in Egypt. It has a particular connection with Mark the Evangelist, who was believed to have founded the Christian Church in Alexandria shortly after 33AD. Egypt and, in particular, the city of Alexandria, produced some of the great theologians of the early Church: Athanasius, Clement and Cyril of Alexandria, and Origen.
These 21 men had been working in Libya as construction workers when they were kidnapped by ISIL in two separate raids in December 2014 and January 2015. They were purportedly executed on the beach opposite a hotel.
The icon featured today was createdby by a Coptic Christian, Tony Rezk. In the image, the martyrs' crowns descend upon the Copts and one man whose darker skin represents his difference. One of the men captured with them from the construction site was not an Egyptian Copt, but a man from Ghana (or Chad, say some reports). Most accounts say that he was not a Christian, but the faith of these twenty men inspired him to say, when asked, "their God is my God." The men are dressed in robes of orange to depict the orange jumpsuits in which they were martyred.
The Coptic Church remembers them as martyrs, and these brave men serve as a reminder of all persecuted Christians throughout the world who continue to sacrifice their lives to stay faithful to Christ. May their brave faith strengthen our own, and may their imitation of Christ's peaceful surrender inspire peace in the hearts of men and women throughout our war-torn world.
On this feast of the twenty-one Coptic Martyrs, let us pray for peace throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East!
Image Credit: Icon by Tony Rezk, used with permission. Visit Tony's website to view and purchase this and other icons.