✝️ REFLECTION CAPSULE – Feb 10, 2024: Saturday
“Daring to move out of the ‘zone of limitation’ and knowing that God is always with us – caring, loving and providing!”
(Based on 1 Kgs 12:26-32; 13:33-34 and Mk 8:1-10 – Saturday of the 5th Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2)
Two Christian friends were talking about their life experiences.
One of them said: “It is so very hard to trust God and to realize that His Hand is still leading us in the dark phases of our life!”
“Well”, said the other, ” if you cannot trust a person out of sight, then he/she is not worth much!
And if you cannot trust God in the dark, it simply shows… you don’t trust Him at all!”
That’s quite a point, isn’t it?
We find our Christian Faith often on an easy course, when things go on well.
But when difficulties come our way, our “trust” level is questioned.
It is in these “questionable moments of trust” that we tend to enter into a “zone of limitation”
We tend to think in a limited and restricted manner.
We tend to limit ourselves to our inadequacies and narrowness.
But God loves to challenge us to move beyond such boundaries and borders!
Yes, human beings tend to think in a limited fashion, but God loves to expand our possibilities.
Human beings tend to get bogged down by boundaries, but God loves to throw open our horizons.
The Gospel of the day is a clear illustration of this expansion of human horizons and possibilities, through the miracle of the feeding of loaves…
… and thus trusting Him deeper!
Jesus is with His disciples and huge crowd.
They are once again in a situation of having a want of feeding this huge multitude.
It’s interesting to highlight the patterns in the attitudes of Jesus and the disciples.
Jesus sees the hungry crowd and His heart moved in compassion…
The disciples saw the hungry crowd and probably their minds were moved in tension!
Jesus expresses His concern and care to feed the hungry crowd…
The disciples express their frustration and urgency to send the crowd away at the earliest!
Jesus foresaw the possibility of immense fulfilment and satisfaction in the deserted area…
The disciples got stuck with seeing only barrenness and emptiness in the deserted area!
Jesus moved in action, to enquire about the possibilities of feeding the people…
The disciples groaned in inaction at the plight of having to feed the people!
The disciples concluded impossibility by their mathematical calculations…
Jesus concluded possibility by His Divine calculations!
The disciples saw only the desert…
Jesus looked beyond – to find an oasis in the desert!
How often are we too like the disciples…
… limited in our thinking
… restricted by our inabilities
… stuck by our mental calculations
But Jesus invites us, like He did to His disciples…to look beyond…
… to look at Him who can shatter every obstacle and barrier!
… to look to Him who can expand every horizon and possibility!
… to look to Him who can turn deserts into pools and hills into highways!
Yes, we will have moments in our life which makes us to complain:
“It is so very hard to trust God and to realize that His Hand is still leading us in the dark phases of our life!”
But we are reminded by the Gospel of the Day:
“If you cannot trust a person out of sight, then he/she is not worth much!
And if you cannot trust God in the dark, it simply shows… you don’t trust Him at all!”
Let us dare to move out of the “zone of limitation” and trust the Lord…
… knowing He is always with us – caring, loving and providing!
God Bless! Live Jesus!