I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to believe this.  I want so much to be worthy of being loved – to know that I have earned it, deserve it.

Yet God insists on loving the unworthy parts of me, the selfishness, the doubts, the limitations.  This being-loved has grave consequences.  It means that eventually I must come around to accept and love those parts of myself.  And to accept that those very weaknesses are the places of greatest gift and being-loved.

“You give them something to eat.”

In today’s Gospel, the disciples reject this challenge from Jesus.  Although they had just returned from working miracles, they could not trust Him or imagine the impossible.  So what did Jesus do?  He works a miracle not out of thin air but on their doubts and limited resources.  What was inadequate and unworthy – five loaves, two fish and much skepticism – becomes the instrument of God’s loving and providing for his people.

What is the weakness in each of us that God already loves, and wants to transform into a source of life and grace?