First Reading - Genesis 3:9-24
Gospel - Mark 8:1-10
The first reading throws light on the scene of punishment due to the failure of the first parents. We see in the story that God realized the violation of the law but the man and woman never accepted their mistake rather tried to defend oneself and put the blame on the other. The first parents, in the process of defending themselves, forgot that God is all-knowing and were not ready to take the blame upon themselves. God punished the man, the woman and the serpent. The punishment to all the three shows the justice of God and reminds of the failure of our first parents. The whole story reminds us of our defensive mentality emanating from our selfish attitude because of which we never own our mistakes. The result of this is that one sin begets another sin, such as; the failure to observe the commandment leads to another sin of lie and putting the blame on others. The passage is also a reminder for us that we should break the chain of sin by owning it. The selfish attitude is to avoid the failure and put it on others but take the credit of all good things. However, the selfless attitude is to own the failure and better it.
The gospel gives us a beautiful passage to reflect upon the considerate nature of Jesus. Jesus' considerate nature can be observed by his compassionate look with which he notices the physical need of the people - hunger. He not only had sympathy for them but that he also translated it into action by multiplying the seven loaves of bread to feed the hungry crowd. The miraculous feeding of four thousand people with the seven loaves and still seven baskets of loaves of bread are left (refers to abundance) which symbolises the completion or perfection of human desire in Jesus (7 is a biblical number which symbolises completion or perfection); Jesus completes and perfects us.
Dear friends, today's readings remind me of a question of one of my professors, "Why do I do what I do?". This question prods us into our quest for a fundamental answer for our actions. The first reading tells us that our first parents wanted to defend themselves so that one could be proven roght. The underlying factor behind their lie or putting of blame on other was their selfish attitude. They became self-centred. Jesus, on the other side, does everything out of love for the people. He was concerned about them. He perceives the needs of people, in today's reading that is their hunger, and acts accordingly. Jesus is people-centric. We also need to ask ourselves, 'am I self-centred or people-centred? When we are self-centred, our every action will be for self-glory, power, prestige, honour, self-gratification etc. They can reach us nowhere but certainly to our ruins because our self-centredness will alienate ourselves from others and also God. Our people-centric attitude can make us approachable and happy. This attitude can lead us close to God and one another.
Let's pray that we may become more people-centric so that we will always remain close to God and one another.
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