Daily Gospel Reflection for April 17, 2015

Today's Gospel: John 6:1-15

Today you are the boy with five barley loaves and two fish. How can you possibly feed over 5000 people? You cannot! But your meager gift of what you do have, given to Christ, can. Some days I awake ready, with a Joan of Arc heart, to go out and bring as many souls to God as I possibly can, fighting off the evil that paralyzes people and leaves them hopeless. But only ten minutes into my day, my plans are derailed by a wireless modem that needs to be reset, or a dishwasher that needs to be emptied, or a grandbaby that needs attention. So my great plans to conquer evil for God are removed and replaced by the small ones of serving Him in my actual vocation as wife and mother (and now grandmother). But then when we look at the impact of those small barley loaves and two fish on the world, we must believe that God takes those gifts that seem mundane and insignificant and uses them through our family as they go out into the world.

Day after day I have a list as long as my arm of things I want to accomplish, and day after day I get to bedtime and realize I might have accomplished only a few. But those few are worth a great deal. They are the pebble in the lake that causes ongoing ripples of love reaching to the outer banks and beyond. It is a great feeling of peace when we realize our small gifts done with great love can do miracles because Christ, the miracle-worker, takes those small gifts and does great things with them. St. Edith Stein once said, “I don’t use any extraordinary means to extend my working time; I just do whatever I can. Apparently, what I can do increases in proportion to the number of things that have to be done. When nothing urgent is called for, my energy gives out much faster. Heaven evidently has a sense of economy…It all depends on having a quiet little corner where you can talk with God on a daily basis as if nothing else existed…and regarding yourself completely as an instrument, so that you treat your most frequently demanded talents, not as something that you use, but as God working through you.” So today you are the boy with five barley loaves and two fish. Trust that God has a plan and is working through whatever you have to bring to Him for His use and then go do miracles through Him.

Ponder:

Do I recognize my day-to-day tasks as gifts given to God for His use? Do I let my imagination run a little wild envisioning how my contribution to my family and the world have an eternal impact?

Pray:

Lord, I want to do great things for You, but get so bogged down with the everyday responsibilities of my vocation. Help me to recognize those responsibilities as small offerings to You to do with as You see fit for the kingdom. Amen.

We thank our friends at The Word Among Us for providing our gospel reflection team with copies of Abide In My Word 2015: Mass Readings at Your Fingertips. To pray the daily gospels with this wonderful resource, visit The Word Among Us.

Copyright 2015 Diane Schwind