His Heart was moved with pity for them - Mk 6:34-44
I really like today’s Gospel passages where I can hear about Jesus' emotions. There is something captivating about it. God feels something. He is not a judge with a huge abacus that counts my failures and weaknesses. God appears as someone who cares. He is not indifferent to what he sees. He can be compassionate ...
In today's Gospel we hear that Christ is "moved with pity." It is highly informative. It shows that God's work begins when he sees human weakness. When those in need of help appear on God's horizon, He reacts immediately.
When I notice this, I automatically wonder why there were so many situations in my life in which I had an impression that He was far away. Why when I needed Him, seemed to me He was distant and inaccessible? I looked for an answer for a long time, but luckily, I found it. The problem is (I really know what I am saying) I have been waiting too long to let Him act. Very often I lacked a firm prayer saying: Jesus, save me, I trust in You!
I encourage you to observe your life. Are you not overly convinced that you could do everything on your own?
It seems to me that there is an irresistible claim in us humans that we must be self-sufficient. The world resembles the old maxim every day: "if you can count on someone, count on yourself". The daily struggle for existence makes us believe that it is a shame to ask for help. Unfortunately, this also affects our image of God. We put Him in a row next to the people who hurt us, and we think that He will do likewise. Fortunately, it is completely different!
Let us take a close look at today's Gospel passage. What prompts Jesus to be interested in crowds? That they mean a lot to him and he will surely receive some benefits from it? No! On the contrary. God is encouraged by our weakness. Until we try to "get things our way," God will have truly little effect on our lives. Why? Well, because we will make gods of ourselves. Being the so-called " self-sufficient " shows that we do not need God, and as we know, God respects our freedom and will not make us happy by force.
Knowing this, let us consider what our dialogue with God looks like. Are our prayers being not like requests that God will help us according to our design? Are we ready thatGod will take over the "helm" of our life and become its host?
The Evangelist Mark clearly writes that Christ was " moved with pity " because people were "like sheep without a shepherd." What a beautiful picture and comparison. To be like a sheep without a shepherd is to be someone who is constantly lost, has no purpose in life and is in danger from all sides. There is no worse situation than being without a shepherd, being "stray." Therefore, to start even more fruitful cooperation with God, we must show that we simply need Him.
Jesus responded beautifully to the helplessness of the crowd. He started teaching them. Slowly, word after word he began to pour hope into their hearts. He had to do it with such great charisma that only the apostles saw that it was getting late and that it was necessary to think about a meal. Christ touched the hearts of people so much that their stomachs did not even rumble. This shows that man is very hungry for the Word of God.
The apostles asked for a meal for the people. They suggested that Jesus should send people to nearby towns for shopping. Nothing fancy about it, just a simple thoughtful proposition.
But Jesus planned otherwise. He did not want people send away from him. Since he had recently taken them under his protection, he did not want to show that he was no longer interested in them. If he were able to feed them spiritually, he would also feed them with bread. He works the miracle of the bread multiplication. Although at first, he scared his disciples a little asking them that they should feed the crowd, but he takes the initiative himself. It seems to me that the 12 baskets that were left after feeding the multitude of people are nothing more than a souvenir for the 12 apostles. Each received one basket of leftovers so that in the future he would not have to worry that anyone would run out of food.
Today's Gospel is proof that God cares for us. He remembers each of us, both in a spiritual and material sense. We are only faced with the question: do we want to recognize him as our shepherd, or do we prefer to deal with our problems in our own way?
Until Tomorrow
fr. george