Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6, 34 – 44
As Jesus went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.’ But he answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They said to him, ‘Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?’ And he said to them, ‘How many loaves have you? Go and see.’ When they had found out, they said, ‘Five, and two fish.’ Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
Show compassion
1) When disembarking: This is how today’s gospel begins. You also have to face reality and you cannot always live in a cloud. Facing reality also means looking at what is happening around you, it is being able to look at what it is happening in your life, what is happening to the person who is next to you, what is happening in your society, in your neighborhood, in your home … you cannot be indifferent to what surrounds you. It is like wearing your earphones and acting like nothing else matters. No, this is not true of a Christian life because you need to be able to see what is happening next to you. You cannot be indifferent as this also leads you to realize that many times you grumble about yesterday’s food being served again, while close to you there is someone who has nothing to eat. When you see what is really happening in your society, in your community or around you, you begin to understand that what is happening in your life is nothing, what you are worried about is nothing compared to what is happening around you. To disembark is to stop and look at other stories that are very close to you and that, due to the fast pace of life or other small things that distract you, you did not realize they existed.
2) Teaching them: Jesus in his compassion takes time to teach because the Christian life is not just rituals. A Christian life has a way of being lived, it has a philosophy and a theology; there is much to delve into. There are people who do not realize many things about the Catholic church, so many things that your religion has, and you are not aware. Today there are many who are ignorant of Christianity: they think it is just going to mass, striking your chest and that’s it. How many people do not know about creation, what the difference between Darwin and Newton implies, situations that are not foreign to us, philosophers like Plato and Aristotle and how they are summarized in Christian philosophy and later in theology, what the soul implies in Christianity, the difference between ethics and morals, etc. There are many things you can study and learn about so that you can teach others about your faith. If you do not know or your knowledge is not great, seek formation. In this year that we have just started, do you know what book you are going to read? Surely there is a book that you can read. It is nice to receive formation and study the life of a saint, or reflect on topics like the Virgin Mary, Jesus, the church. There are so many topics. Thanks to God there is so much written. You can consult good pages on the internet or you can look in Catholic bookstores. You can even download applications to your cell phone.
3) He distributed everything: Today we must perform the miracle of fulfilling the needs of others. I’m not saying that tomorrow you go out to the supermarket and buy things. Today there is a hunger for true friendship, there is a hunger for fidelity to the given word, there is a hunger of being listened to by someone who looks you in the eye and not at a cell phone screen while he talks to you. Today, Christians are called to fill these things that are lacking, these needs.
God bless you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Remember, heaven is our goal.
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