Left Overs

Left Overs

“ Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” “Seven,” they replied. 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. They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also. They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over—seven baskets. There were about four thousand people. He dismissed them and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.” ~ Mark 8: 5-10

       With it being the day after Thanksgiving, two things come to mind. First, shopping and Second, Left Overs. Some feel that the left overs are even better then the meal itself.  To have left overs means that the host had an abundant amount of food and that even though they filled their guests appetite, they still had more to offer them. I always are concerned if I will have enough and always go over the top to make sure people will be able to take some home with them. God and Jesus does the same for us. They have so much to offer us and They can fill us so much that it overflows and we have left overs to last us. 

      In Mark’s Gospel we read that Jesus fed thousands with just a few loaves of bread and some fish. It was not just enough or that they only had little to eat, they were filled and there was still enough left overs to fill seven baskets. People were fed both physically and spiritually by Jesus that day. They left with His words. Jesus and God’s word can feed us daily. We just need to listen or read it. 

      God calls us to the table each week as Christians and He will always have more then enough for us at the table. There will be none of us that will leave the table not being filled. We first are fed by the word of God, then by the breaking of bread, Jesus body. We are always welcomed at the table and always fed in some way there. Even when we distance ourselves with sin and we are not fed physically, we are still fed spiritually by the word. 

        God and Jesus always has more to give us as long as we are willing to come back each and everyday and even many times a day if we choose it. When we leave mass we take the word with us and it stays with us. It is like the “left overs” from Thanksgiving. We take the word of God out with us and if we put it into action we again are fed by it. 

       There is also somethings else that can come of “left overs”. We can put them in the fridge and forget about them until we start cleaning out the fridge. Then we start the guessing game of what could it have been. The same can happen to the spiritual “left overs” we take from mass. We can place it in the back of our minds and not even think about it again. Then when we try we can not even remember what we took from the mass. It gone and forgotten. What we learned is wasted in that case.  Yet God will again invite us to His table the following week and again gives us spiritual food to take away again. 

        We can continually be fed by the left overs we got from mass on Sunday all week long if we allow it to be. It is both the physical word and spiritual word that we can set in the forefront of our mind, soul and heart each day. It is when we put it in the back of our minds, that what we got and took home from mass, that will spoil and we will not be fed again from it. 

Until tomorrow, God Bless, and take the word with you after mass this weekend, so you may be fed all week.