Saturday of The 5th Week in Ordinary Time Year B, 13th February, 2021.

 Saturday of The 5th Week in Ordinary Time Year B, 13th February, 2021.

Readings: Gen 3: 9-24, Ps.89, Mark 8:1-10

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

THE DOWNFALL OF MAN AND GOD’S COMPASSION TOWARDS HIM

When God created man, he entrusted all his creation to him and gave him regulations to follow in order to ensure successful fulfilment of this responsibility. But out of pride and selfishness man disobeyed God’s instructions and regulations as we heard in our first reading today and this brought about the downfall of man, who have chosen to listen to the lies of the serpent, and as a result, committed sin against God. 

Thus, when the Lord God called man. ‘Where are you?’ he replied ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden;’ ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’ Hence, he was banished from God’s garden, where he should have remained and enjoying the bliss of God’s presence.

 Nonetheless, God has not abandoned man in his downfall. He is still compassionate, caring and loves us even with our imperfections and our disobedience. His compassion for the sufferings of humanity is so great. This is more evident in our Gospel reading today, where Jesus reveals his compassion towards humanity. This compassionate love of Jesus in it’s historical and physical solidarity with human suffering, springs from the love of God the Father.

Here, Jesus had compassion on the people who had been with him for days listening to his words. He then says to his disciples that there is need for him to give them something to eat before sending them away less they may faint on the way since some of them have come a long distance. This compassion of Jesus is meant for us to spread it throughout the world in a practical way by our ways of life.

Dear friends, God has not abandoned us even in our imperfections, he still cares about us. All he wants from us is to be faithful to him and be compassionate to one another. But how strong is our compassion towards others? Do we know people who are helpless and need some help? Let us look at them for a moment and imagine Jesus looking at them. How does he sees them? Have I ever felt helpless? Do I feel the need of Jesus’ help in some part of my life? 

Today, like Jesus, each one of us are called to reach out to people around us who are really in need of our assistance. This includes our family members, our neighbours, our colleagues and others who we encounter in life. The truth is that, you may be the only person who can brings the healing and compassion of Jesus into their lives. 

LET US PRAY: Lord God, our fragile and contingent nature propelled by pride and sins have always bring about our downfall, but you have never abandoned us. As we embrace your compassion, give us the grace to look at people around us with the compassionate eyes of Jesus and be of help to them the best we could. Do have a peaceful weekend.