Scripture:
1 John 4:7-10
Mark 6:45-52
Reflection:
Bill was born November 26, 1895 to parents who abandoned him and his sister leaving them in the care of their maternal grandparents. Other than this, his childhood and young adulthood contained nothing that would make him worthy of this morning’s reflection. What he did in 1935 however is a whole other story prompting Time Magazine to name him one of the top 100 most important people of the 20th Century. In desperation he reached out to one other person whom he knew had his same malady and asked him for help, help they both needed. That act of desperation and their sharing of their own experience, strength and hope, led to the founding of a fellowship of over 2,000,000 people today coming together in more than 100,000 groups around the world. We know this fellowship as AA. This story kind of reminds me of today’s Gospel selection.
Jesus: "…saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things." (Mark 6:34)
It’s interesting to me that Jesus doesn’t stop at feeding their minds and hearts. He teaches them further of the power of sharing-sharing the little bit we each have. That sharing leads to abundance both in our Gospel selection for today and the story above. "They all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish" (Mark 6:42-43)
Dan O’Donnell is a Passionist Partner and a longtime friend of the Passionists. He lives in Chicago.