First Reading - Acts 5:34-42
Gospel - John 6:1-15
In the first reading, we come across a very strange scene from the lives of the apostles: gladness to have suffered humiliation and pain in the name of Jesus. The incessant insistence of the Jewish leaders was to suppress the preaching work of the apostles. However, it was at the advice of Gamaliel, a respected and influential Jew, that the leaders accepted to allow the apostles in their work, considering that if their work had been from human, the movement would die out as had happened with many movements, but if the same had been from God, it would be unwise to go against God. Therefore, the leaders got the apostles flogged and warned them not to preach in the name of Jesus. Surprisingly, the apostles were glad to suffer such humiliation and pain in the name of Jesus. Despite such suffering, they continued to preach in the name of Jesus with vigor and enthusiasm.
The gospel passage presents to us the famous episode of the feeding of the five thousand. The feeding of the five thousand evokes the imagery of Psalm 23 which identifies God with the shepherd ("The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want"). Jesus, seeing the crowd expectantly following him, decides to feed them like a good shepherd. Jesus, with the generous sharing of a small boy's five barley loaves and two fish, miraculously multiplies them to the satisfaction of all people, and there remain twelve baskets (symbolizing his messianic kingship who fulfills and leads all the twelve tribes like a good shepherd). Seeing the miracle, the people recognized the greatness of Jesus and wanted to take him forcefully to become their political king, but Jesus eludes the crowd (this is to show that he was not a political Messiah but a spiritual one).
Dear friends, suffering and pain are aversions to us because they are undesirable for us. However, the first reading reminds us today that suffering finds meaning in our lives if we suffer it for a cause. The apostles suffered gladly for Christ because they found meaning in it. We try our best to avoid suffering and pain because we don't find any meaning in it. Our little suffering, inconvenience, difficulty, and hardship will have great meaning if we undergo them in the name of Jesus. The gospel also assures us that our good shepherd will never ignore or abandon us. Jesus will come to our help in our needs like those crowds who followed Jesus expectantly at times with wrong motives, but Jesus satisfied or fed them. Jesus will find a way for us to help us just as he found a way to feed the crowd. We need to follow him at times by carrying our daily cross, trusting in his words: “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-12)
May God give us patience to endure our sufferings in the name of Jesus.
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