I HAVE COMPASSION…

1 Kings 12:26-32;13:33-34

26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David; 27 if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.”
28 So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
29 And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.30 And this thing became a sin, for the people went to the one at Bethel and to the other as far as Dan. 31 He also made houses on high places, and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites.
32 And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices upon the altar; so he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.
33 After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people; any who would, he consecrated to be priests of the high places. 34 And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.

Mark 8:1-8,10

1 In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him, and said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days, and have nothing to eat; 3 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.”
4 And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these men with bread here in the desert?” 5 And he asked them, “How many loaves have you?” They said, “Seven.” 6 And he commanded the crowd to sit down on the ground; and 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.
7 And they had a few small fish; and having blessed them, he commanded that these also should be set before them. 8 And they ate, and were satisfied; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.
10 And he sent them away; and immediately he got into the boat with his disciples, and went to the district of Dalmanutha.  

MEDITATION 

THE FIRST READING: Jeroboam is concerned that the spliting of the kingdom was after all not such a good idea, because his people started to regularly return to the southern kingdom in Jerusalem to worship the God of David. Fearing the loss of his secularist hold over the people, Jeroboam devised a devious scheme to keep his subjects in bondage. He replicated a false model of the southern Kingdom, by appointing non levitical priests to offer a form of sacriligious worship with man made golden calves that he commissioned! 

Catec 676 The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the “intrinsically perverse” political form of a secular messianism.

THE GOSPEL READING recount the stupendous event when after three consecutive days of teaching, our Lord took seven loaves and a few fish to feed more than five thousand men and women. This supernatural charitable act of Christ was motivated by His concern of the suffering and misfortunes of the people that emmanated from the mandates of the evil Roman political dictatorship, who lorded over them! 

To be sure these men and women were seeking the gospel truth, because they were up to their neck with the lies of their religious leaders, who drank from the well of the political elite! The pandemic has certainly seen the poisoning of the gospel message by some bishops, pastors and the laity who have been mezmerized by the false compassion of the political class. We are called to be fed with supernatural bread from Christ who genuinely empathise with us, so that we may be transformed into holiness and worship Him alone.

LET US PRAY: Psalms 106:6-7,19-22

6 Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. 7 Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider thy wonderful works; they did not remember the abundance of thy steadfast love, but rebelled against the Most High at the Red Sea.19 They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a molten image. 20 They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. 21 They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, 22 wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea.

Commentary. Henry R SYLVESTER Note: The daily scripture readings are taken from the Roman Missal which the Catholic Church use in the daily Celebration of the Holy Eucharist throughout the world.Some weekly readings may differ because of the celebration of local feast days.