Today, the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the gospel presented Jesus as the sharer. We know that He, in fact, is the ultimate and perfect sharer. It is the very reason why He came into the world - to share his complete self. All throughout the gospel narratives, we see Jesus as someone who shares. 

The gospel today is a continuation of last week's gospel. After preaching to the people, Jesus wanted to feed them, but this task was seen as unrealistic by the apostles, especially by Philip. Oftentimes we are like Philip when faced with difficult situations in life - we say it is not possible and only see what our human capacity can do. We see fear rather than faith. 

But just like in the gospel, Jesus knows exactly what to do. In our lives, God knows what to do. Let us hold onto our faith and see what God can do in our lives, especially in challenging situations. May we become sharers as well, especially of our faith in our God who provides. 

Today's gospel is a continuation of last Sunday's story where the apostles were sent out by Jesus, and were returning from their mission of preaching repentance, casting out demons and healing the sick. Jesus invited them to come and be alone with him so that they could be renewed. We know though this didn't happen right away, because the people went ahead of them where they were going to rest.

The twelve in this gospel are called the apostles, which means 'one who is sent'. By the virtue of our baptism, we are all called to become disciples of Jesus to be sent out as apostles with the mission to preach the love of God. 

In the gospel, Jesus affirms the importance of resting and renewal so that we can do our mission with passion and dedication. Jesus wants us to come away and spend time alone with him. This, my brothers and sisters, is what we seek and will find in our prayer life, and especially in our celebration of the Eucharist. 

In this Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, let us come away with Jesus in a very special way - in the altar of His sacrifice. Renewed by His own Body and Blood, may we go out into the world preaching the great love of God, and His mercy and compassion to all those we encounter. 

Today, the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we see the continuation from last week's gospel. These gospel narratives set the foundation for how the ministry of Jesus is laid down - Jesus teaches, then He heals. He taught and performed miracles in many towns and cities near Nazareth because people believed in Him. In His own town though, the people's lack of faith hampered Him from performing miracles.

The lesson for us is that most of the time we do not recognize the power of Jesus working in our lives, because of our lack of faith. Yes, we pray and we come to Mass, but we are easily distracted by the world and lose our focus on our spiritual growth. 

Let us continue to pray that we may set aside every hindrance to deepen our faith in Jesus, so that we may always see even the smallest miracles that God is performing in our lives.