Two days ago, as Brother Ange Masuta reminded us, the Church celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. That day marks the first apparition of our Blessed Mother Mary to Bernadette Soubirous on February 11, 1858 in Lourdes, France. Between the 8th and the 11th apparitions, Mary invited Bernadette to pray and do penance for the conversion of sinners. The message of Lourdes is still relevant for us today especially as we approach Lenten season.
In the light of today’s readings, I invite us to meditate on the reality of sin and the solution God has given us. The fall of Adam and Eve remains the archetype to understand sin. Before eating the forbidden fruit and thus disobeying God, they both enjoyed the glorious presence of God. Their experience of sin shows us that we are created as free beings and endowed with the ability to make choice. However, their liberty has limit as seen in Genesis 2:16-17. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit not because they were hungry but because they wanted to satisfy their curiosity and thus doubted God. By disobeying God, they wanted more than what God gave them. They allowed themselves to be seduced by the serpent. This is what happens when we don’t trust God; when we are seduced by earthly pleasures.
When God questioned Adam: “Where are you?” he replied: “I heard the sound of you in the garden, I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid”. Sin creates in us the sense of insecurity and shame. Since the fall of Adam and Eve, God has never stopped searching for lost souls. Are we able to distinguish the voice of God from the voice of the evil one? Today, our society is trying to abolish the sense of sin thus creating confusion between what is good and evil.
Today, God continues to accompany us even as we struggle against the pandemic. At this moment of human history, let us remember that “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. It is important today that we continue to believe in God’s unfathomable love for every soul and in the possibility of salvation for all even though we experience the fallen nature of Adam and Eve. Therefore, it is important that we resolutely embrace the call to continuous conversion.
In Christ Jesus we contemplate this Love of God for humanity. What Jesus did in today’s Gospel shows that God really cares for us. The crowd gathered around Jesus was so happy listening to him. He nourished them with heavenly bread. He knew that those listening to him are human beings; they needed also to nourish their physical body. Jesus went beyond having compassion for them and acted concretely to satisfy their hunger for food. The miracle of seven loaves of bread and few fishes was made possible thanks to the participation of the disciples. We see here divine providence in action.
In our personal and community lives, no matter the challenges we face, let us remember the miracle of the loaves. Jesus wants us to present to Him our “Loaves of bread and fishes” and He will do the needful. Loaves and fishes symbolically stand for all forms of charity acts we can do especially in this time of pandemic. Endowed with the ability to make choice, we should allow the Word of God to enlighten us so that we will make appropriate discernment and make rightful decisions that will bring us joy and peace in our relationship with God and others.
