’“We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.’ –Matthew 14:17
When I was 13 yrs. old, I started to join the Youth Ministry in our parish. It was the time when my Catholic faith started to bloom and my love in serving the Church lit a fire that kept my heart warmed in serving. One time during those early days in my service, one of our active chapel leaders died. She was the one who taught me how to pray the Holy Rosary and how to lead novenas. She was one of our pillars so the activities could be kept alive. After her death, we experienced changes and lesser support from the officials. The members of the youth became lesser and I can see no one to help me but myself. I was about to give up when a friend told me this: “If you can see no one in the ministry who’s leading and working other than yourself, it means God called you to do it. God needs you to rebuild the ministry so there would be more youth to come to him.” Since that day, I learned to stand and walk not for myself but for the ministry. I always remind myself with those words so as the quote given by our youth formators- “Dream BIG, start SMALL, and go SLOW” and God will always guide you in planting His seeds in the heart of every youth.
For this Sunday Gospel’s reflection, allow me to specifically address this to the youth who are also serving any of our Church’s ministries. My dear young brothers and sisters, there might be days in our service that we feel tired because we received lesser support from our fellow young Catholic or from our leaders. You might get tired seeing how the world influenced the youth for walking away from the Church. There might be days you got broken-hearted after seeing your many people ignored your efforts just to make every activity successful. You might get hurt from the criticisms you received from your neighbors, friends, and family. But to my dear brothers and sisters, let me tell you that the gospel today is reminding us to offer these hardships of ours to Jesus who is capable of multiplying whatever you have to feed His people. We are taught to offer our 3Ts (Time, Talent, and Treasures). You don’t have much to offer? No problem! The five loaves and two fishes would not be enough for the 5,000 people if Jesus did not multiply it. As long as you offer everything you have to Him, He will always help you in your ways in service just like how he expressed His compassion to the multitude. “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.” (Matthew 14:14) Jesus always has His compassion for those who walk towards Him.
My dear fellow young Catholic, our present situation is challenging us to face and be mindful of whatever leads us away from God. We are quarantined for a long time and this might result in becoming cold in serving His Church. It is scary to imagine that we might get used to what we are doing and scared or felt lazy to go to our churches for the Holy Mass after this pandemic. It is scary to think that many of us might lose their hope because of the tragedy we are facing. It is scary to think that many of us would settle for less in serving because we don’t want a more complicated life after this.
My dear brothers and sisters, please let us never forget how God loves us, how compassionate Jesus into us. Our present situation should not be a hindrance to serve Him even more and to cling to Him as we offer whatever remained in our hands. We should take this as a call and step more out of our comfort zones and do whatever pleases Him. More importantly, may we make ourselves equipped with our Catholic Teachings so we can help our Church Leaders and Lay Apologists in taking back our fellow sheep who are misguided by some false prophets. Our Church is being persecuted from different part of the world, please let us work hand in hand and unite in praying for those who suffered in persecution so as those who are most affected by this pandemic. Let us cling to God more and become like Jesus in sharing our compassion by offering prayers if we can’t help the others financially. Let us always ask the help of our loving Mother Mary to pray for us too so Jesus would hear our pleas more. Let us offer our five loaves of love and two fishes of prayers so every one of us can be fed.
Be more compassionate, be more prayerful!
HAPPY SUNDAY!
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