Yesterday I focused on the Pharisees who did not understand Jesus and for this reason opposed him. In today’s Gospel I reflect on the fact that the apostles didn’t understand him either, and that this lack of understanding could easily slip into hostility.
Jesus warns them: “Watch out. Guard yourselves against the leaven of the Pharisees,” that is, their way of thinking. He then invites them to remember when he multiplied so much bread that they had to gather up the remnant. What’s the lesson here for me?
Don’t I grow in faith and confidence when I take time to recall all that the Lord has done for me in the past? And isn’t that recollection a stimulus for greater prayer?
I have an example in the 1st Reading of how the Lord punished the evil ones at the time of Noah. Evil multiplied then, as evil multiplied at the time of the Pharisees, and in our own society now as well.
The Ark is the symbol of the Church. There is a lot of messiness aboard; animal droppings awash on the decks and the helmsman and rudder seem at times uncoordinated, but it is the only bark of rescue from the dark waters of the flood. Today I shall pray for the welfare of the Church; that the Lord will bring many drowning people to grasp its floating buoys with the aid of Mary Star of the Sea.