1 Kings 8: 1-7, 9-13
Mark 6: 53-56
Some people have remarked that they wonder about the existence of God because they don't see or feel His presence.
They search and try to look for God's presence, but somehow they just could not get to feel it.
We empathize with these people because at times we do feel that God is absent from our lives especially when we are most in need of Him.
As much as it is said that God is everywhere, His presence can certainly be experienced in worship and in prayer.
In the 1st reading, King Solomon and the priests were preparing for worship and sacrifice.
Then suddenly the glory of the Lord in the form of a cloud filled the Temple so much so that the priests were unable to perform their duties.
But what else was there to do when the Lord manifested Himself. All they needed to do was to be still and know that the Lord was with them.
If they were just concerned with getting the task of sacrificing the sheep and the oxen done, they would surely have missed this mystical experience.
So worship prepares our hearts to see beyond the ordinary and the mundane and to recognize the presence of the Lord in spite of the monotony of life.
In the gospel, the people recognized Jesus when he stepped ashore.
He came as an ordinary person and without fanfare or trumpets blaring, yet the people were able to recognize Him because they could see something mystical in Him.
In this Mass, let us worship and thank the Lord with our hearts, so that our eyes will be opened to see that in the ordinary and mundane monotony of life, God is present, always and everywhere.