Saturday – Fifth Week – OT1

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Saturday – Fifth Week – OT1

Readings: Gen 3:9-24; Mk 8:1-10.

1/ Reading I: NAB Genesis 3:9 The LORD God then called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” 11 Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!” 12 The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me– she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it.” 13 The LORD God then asked the woman, “Why did you do such a thing?” The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.” 14 Then the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you shall be banned from all the animals and from all the wild creatures; On your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.” 16 To the woman he said: “I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing; in pain shall you bring forth children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall be your master.” 17 To the man he said: “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, “Cursed be the ground because of you! In toil shall you eat its yield all the days of your life. 18 Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, as you eat of the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; For you are dirt, and to dirt you shall return.” 20 The man called his wife Eve, because she became the mother of all the living. 21 For the man and his wife the LORD God made leather garments, with which he clothed them. 22 Then the LORD God said: “See! The man has become like one of us, knowing what is good and what is bad! Therefore, he must not be allowed to put out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life also, and thus eat of it and live forever.” 23 The LORD God therefore banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken. 24 When he expelled the man, he settled him east of the garden of Eden; and he stationed the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.

2/ Gospel: NAB Mark 8:1 In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, he summoned the disciples and said, 2 “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. 3 If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” 4 His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?” 5 Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” “Seven,” they replied. 6 He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. 7 They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also. 8 They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over– seven baskets. 9 There were about four thousand people. He dismissed them 10 and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha. 


I. THEME: Benefits and dangers of food

            There are foods that nourish and help our body to be healthy; but also, some food that cause high cholesterol, sugar and blood and bring people to an early death. A simple folk might not know the effects of food unless the experts made them known. To live a healthy life, people need to follow the experts’ guidance. If people eat whatever they want, they must suffer all of its terrible results.

            Today readings tell us some benefits and dangers of food. In the first reading, both the devil and people must receive terrible results from disobeying God’s command by eating the fruit from the knowing good and evil tree. In the Gospel, Jesus performed a miracle to feed four thousand. Because of this miracle, many of them were refreshed and not fainted along the ways to their homes.

II. ANALYSIS:

1/ Reading I: The punishments of the first sin

1.1/ The truth is revealed: All of human acts bring either good or bad results to the ones who did them. The results of disobeying God and eating the forbidden fruit are fear, shame and hiding from God. Soon or later, people must face God’s judgment.

            When God asked Adam and Eve the reason for their acts, they don’t dare to accept their faults but pointed their finger to others: Adam pointed his finger to Eve and also implied God’s fault by saying, “The woman whom you put here with me– she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it.” Eve attributed her fault to the serpent, “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.” If she were obeyed God, there is no way for the serpent to allure her. People have freedom to act; therefore, they must be responsible for their act.

1.2/ God declared punishments to all parties.

            (1) For the serpent: The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you shall be banned from all the animals and from all the wild creatures; On your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.” The enmity between the devil and people, between the devil’s offspring and the woman’s offspring was conquered by the Blessed Mary and Jesus Christ.

            (2) For Eve, the woman: The Lord God said to her, “I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing; in pain shall you bring forth children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall be your master.” This punishment also implied the man’s leadership in his family.

            (3) For Adam, the man: The Lord God said to him, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, “Cursed be the ground because of you! In toil shall you eat its yield all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, as you eat of the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground, from which you were taken.” The heaviest punishment for the man and the woman is death, as God said, “For you are dirt, and to dirt you shall return.”

1.3/ Adam and Eve were prevented from touching the tree of life: Today report confirms there are two trees in the middle of the Garden: the tree of life and the knowing good and evil tree. Since Adam and Eve ate the latter tree, they know good and evil. Many people suppose that if they eat the fruit from the tree of life, their descendants shall be happy because they shall live forever.

            To prevent them from eating the fruit of this tree, the Lord God declared, “See! The man has become like one of us, knowing what is good and what is bad! Therefore, he must not be allowed to put out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life also, and thus eat of it and live forever.” When the Lord God expelled the man, he settled him east of the Garden of Eden; and he stationed the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.

2/ Gospel: Jesus multiplied bread to feed four thousand people.

2.1/ Jesus’ and his disciples’ reactions:

            (1) Jesus knew two basic needs of humankind: bodily and spiritual. The details of today passage highlighted Jesus’ concern not only spiritual but also material need of the people. He said to his disciples: “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days, and have nothing to eat; and if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come a long way.”

            (2) The disciples’ practical reaction: They were very practical. They voiced their concerns: How could we find enough bread for such a crowd in the desert? Even if we could find bread, how could we find money to buy them? That is their responsibility to find bread, our duty is to give them spiritual food!

            Many spiritual leaders can be based on these reasons to turn away those who came to them for material help. They forgot that charity is the duty of all faithful, they aren’t exceptional. Moreover, many believed in God, not by preachers’ words but by their merciful acts.

2.2/ The multiplication of bread: There are two miracles of the multiplication of bread in Mark’s Gospel.

            (1) The multiplication of bread from five loaves of bread and two small fishes to feed five thousand men alone. All four evangelists reported this event (Mt 14:15-21, Mk 6:34-44, Lk 9:12-17, and Jn 6:1-14).

            (2) The multiplication of bread from seven loaves of bread and a few fishes to feed four thousand people was only reported by Mark in today passage and mentioned by Matthews 6:10. 

            – The similar things happened in both miracles: The Eucharistic formula which Jesus also used in the Last Supper: “He took the seven loaves, and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd.” And he did similar thing to a few small fish.

            – The different things happened in both miracles: The amount of the present people; the amount of bread and fish; Capernaum, a Jewish region for five thousand and Decapolis, a Gentiles’ region for four thousand people; the remaining bread: 12 baskets for five thousand and 7 baskets for four thousand people.    

           

III. APPLICATION IN LIFE:

            – We need to follow God’s and the experts’ guidance because there are many things which we don’t know or exceed our understanding.

            – The following of God’s commands don’t limit our freedom; but help us to achieve good results, to overcome temptations of the devil and of the world.

            – God is the Good and knows all things. We need to put our absolute trust in Him and to keep all of His commandments. There is no one of this world who is wiser than God; therefore, we must value His words more than words of other human beings. 

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