Occasionally—OK, who am I kidding?—Lily, testing the waters of independence will say “no” to Mommy or MarMar or me.
When she realizes it will do her no good, she looks at us as if we’re going to punish her somehow; maybe when she’s old enough to actually know she’s disobeying, but not yet. But when I see this, I see the effects of sin as they are shown in Genesis. The first effect of sin is shame: after Adam and Eve had sinned, they found leaves to cover up their nakedness because of their shame. The second effect is fear. When God called for Adam and Eve in the garden they ran and hid. Because of their sin, shame and fear entered the world and those ramifications are still linked hand in hand with sin. It’s sad to see that the human weakness for sinning and disobeying God is instilled in people when they are so young. We are deprived of the original holiness and justice that God intended for us to have at birth, and instead we’re born with original sin. Isn't that kind of depressing? However, God loves us so much that even though our relationship of trust with him was broken, he gave us means through Baptism and Reconciliation to wash away our sins and receive his unending mercy.
The Gospel reading, while not apparent to me at first glance, goes hand in hand with the story in Genesis. Christ’s miracle with feeding the four thousand people shows how Christ rewards people who persevere in following him and he shows his unending love. God loves all of his creations, and if we follow him and devote our life to him, he will make sure our needs are met. The feeding of the four thousand shows God’s immense love and mercy. By feeding all those who had followed him to hear his word, he made sure that they were provided for. This shows that God will make sure that we’re taken care of if we follow him; through the losses or hardships we incur during our devotion to him, he will take care of us. If we seek to glorify him, we shall be fed by him, because it is not his way to turn people away empty-handed when they look to him for bread. God did and always will continue to invite us to come to him to obtain his mercy and grace in our time of need. And by feeding the four thousand, God shows that with him, nothing is impossible.
Today we are called to ask ourselves, have we confessed our sins in hopes of receiving God’s unending mercy? And have we truly dedicated our lives to following Christ?
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