It is 10th February 2018. We celebrate the memorial of St Scholastica, Virgin. Scholastica is the patron saint of nuns, and her intercession is invoked against storms and rain. The readings are from 1 Kings 12:26-32; 13:33-34 and the Gospel from Mark 8:1-10. There is a hunger in every one of us. Some of us are hungry for food, some others are hungry for God. We have heard that hungry person is the angry person. When people are hungry for God, we cannot satisfy them with material food and vice versa. The search for God is aggregated by the events and the persons we encounter in our lives. Wrong persons in our lives lead us to satisfy the carnal hunger and making us to feel for more. But only one person who recognised the hunger for God in people and feed them with the food that allows the people to come closer to God is Jesus, who himself became the food for people. In the first reading, we reflect about Jeroboam led the people from the sacred to the secular and from worshiping one God to the idols. It is the invasion of the souls of people by a ruler. Replacing God with fancy gods of impressions and attractions to the pleasures of lives. King Jeroboam made two golden calves and placed them in Bethel and Dan attracting people from Jerusalem. He replaced God in the minds of people with the materialistic idols of human thinking. Sin of the ruler spills not only in the mind of the people but also in the streets of the community. It destroyed the unity of the nation. Hunger for God is replaced by the hunger for the idols. God does not spare the one who believes and promotes the idolatry among the people. “Such conduct made the House of Jeroboam a sinful house, and caused its ruin and extinction from the face of the earth.” (1 Kgs.13:34). The responsorial Psalm intercedes, “O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.” (Ps.105:4). In the Gospel, we witness the multiplication of bread by Jesus. This miracle is mentioned twice in Mathew and Mark, and once in Luke and John. God does not ignore our hunger whether it is spiritual or material. Jesus is the Bread of Life who offers himself for the satisfaction of the soul and body. It is the Holy Communion, the daily portion that is available for the consumption by the one who is prepared and ready to receive it as the food for the way, the viaticum. Jesus alone can satisfy our hunger for God. Let us not go behind a person who cannot satisfy our inner hunger and misleading us to instil a false satisfaction by the materialistic provision. May we trust in God at all times especially when we are hungry looking for God. May you have a good day.

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