"The Lord provides."

 As Christians we are taught to rely on the Lord for everything,

Lord does provide for our needs, he answers our prayers when we come before him.  

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Genesis 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10

The Lord saw

How great was the wickedness of man on the earth and that evil was always the only thought of his heart.

The Lord regretted having created man on the earth and his heart grieved. He said,

"I will destroy man whom I created and blot him out from the face of the earth,

as well as the beasts, creeping creatures and birds, for I am sorry I made them."

But Noah was pleasing to God.

 

The Lord said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I see that you are just in this generation.

Of all the clean animals, you are to take with you seven of each kind, male and female, and a pair of unclean animals, a male and a female.

In the same way for the birds of the air, take seven and seven, male and female, to keep their kind alive over all the earth,

for in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will blot out from the face of the earth all the living creatures I have created."

Noah did all as the Lord had commanded

And after seven days the waters of the flood were over the earth.

 

Ps 29:1a & 2, 3ac-4, 3b & 9c-10 The Lord will bless his people with peace.

 

＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊      

Mark 8:14-21

The disciples had forgotten to bring more bread, and had only one loaf with them in the boat. Then Jesus warned them,  "Keep your eyes open,

and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod." And they said to one another, "He saw that we have no bread."

 

Aware of this, Jesus asked them, "Why are you talking about the loaves you are short of?

Do you not see or understand? Are your minds closed? Have you eyes that don't see and ears that don't hear?

And do you not remember when I broke the five loaves among five thousand? How many baskets full of leftovers did you collect?"

They answered, "Twelve." "And having distributed seven loaves to the four thousand, how many wicker baskets of leftovers did you collect?"

They answered, "Seven." Then Jesus said to them, "Do you still not understand?"

 

Gospel Reflection ：

Yeast is very useful, yet, apart from the parable of the leaven (Mt 13:33),

Scripture mostly uses yeast as a negative image. It doesn't take much yeast to transform the dough and make it rise.

In a negative sense, this is applied to attitudes of Herod and the Pharisees.

 

Jesus is saying that their attitude to life and religion is devastating,

in that it only takes a little of it to damage our relationship with God,

by shifting our attention solely to earthly things or to a misuse of spiritual things.

The Pharisees' hearts were hardened to their Saviour, so they didn't recognize him.

 

Their minds were closed to his call to conversion, too, since they thought that salvation could be obtained simply by fulfilling the religious laws,

without also taking care to offer a sacrifice of a "contrite heart" that delights in the "joy of [God's] salvation" (Ps 51: 19, 14).

Here Jesus is warning his disciples not to have the same attitudes.

The miracle of the loaves and fish reminds us that the Lord provides. In the challenges and activities of life,

may we keep our minds fixed on the Lord and not forget his loving care.