Jacob Perikala csc –
Readings: Num 11: 4b-15; Mt 14: 13-21
In the gospel we read that Jesus felt compassion for people. What is essential in doing the mission of the Lord is seeing the needy and having compassion. Jesus saw the people and felt compassion. The helplessness of the pierced his heart.
He saw precious and gifted people being pressed under the weight of human problems. He was moved to help them and to teach his disciples the great necessity of seeing people and of feeling compassion for them. The compassion of the disciples was very weak.
Their problem was the same problem that had troubled men and women always. People see nothing but their own human power and resources. They think in terms of doing just as what the disciples did: ignoring and sending them away. Today’s gospel teaches us that to deal with the problems of the world around us we need to take our resources to God and must ask him to work through us.