“You can’t hardly look at any of the Gospels in the Bible without seeing instances of the compassionate love of Jesus. He reached out to the lepers to the lame to the blind to the sick to the poor to the hungry and he always responded with compassionate love and you know, that’s really been the history of the Church as well. I think through the centuries we’ve always tried to respond to the, especially the physical as well as the spiritual needs of people and that’s what we see in the Gospel today. We have all of these people, these crowds and thousands of people who follow Jesus and who want to listen to him preach and who want to receive his healing mercy and they’ve been with him all day and it’s getting late at night and they haven’t eaten. They are hungry, so the disciples tell Jesus ‘Dismiss them. Let them go and find food at the villages otherwise they’ll faint along the way.’ But Jesus says, ‘No, don’t dismiss them. YOU give them something to eat yourselves. YOU give them something yourselves for them to eat.’ I think those are key words for the Church through the centuries as well that we are to respond as Jesus did with compassionate love towards those who suffer. What are some of the great sufferings, the hungers of today’s people? Well, certainly with this pandemic things are much worse throughout the world and the hungry masses of people many who have lost their jobs and wonder where the next dinner is coming for their family. I saw on the news the other night that in the United States 40 million people last week had not enough food to eat. 40 million in our own country! Wow, what a staggering thing that is and when you look in the world, I read some statistics that said 1.2 billion people make about $1.25 a day and that’s what they use to feed and clothe and shelter their families, so the world is really hurting in many many ways and we are called to give them something ourselves to eat.
Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has certainly been a clerian, a voice, awakening within us that need to have compassion for the poor, the suffering of this world. Everything he says in some way comes around to that and so it’s been a really wonderful testimony for us, but we have other hungers too not just being hungry for food and shelter and so on. We have spiritual hungers and we are called to feed those and we have so many opportunities, you and I, to feed that spiritual hunger within us that hunger ultimately that is for God. It’s a hunger that’s created within us. We may not recognize it, but it’s always there, God calling us to himself, God calling us to share in his life, God calling us to be one with him that is a hunger created within each one of us and we have many opportunities:
- certainly private prayer
- daily Mass
- adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
- the study and sharing of scripture
- going on spiritual retreats
There are so many ways in which we can feed our spiritual hunger. Remember Jesus’ words. They’re found in the book of Revelation. It’s a favorite verse of mine, so you’ll probably hear it from me a number of times, but it says Jesus is saying, ‘Listen, listen, I stand knocking at your door hoping you will open up so that I may enter and dine with you and you with me.’ That’s what he wants. He wants to dine with us to share his very life with us. So, how hungry are you? Are you hungry for God? Are you hungry for Jesus? He calls you today to draw near to Him who feeds us in our bodies and in our spirits.
I have a little prayer I’d like to share with you. I entitled this prayer, ‘Multiplying Bread.’
Jesus Lord, our world’s in need
Hungry, sick, war torn
The suffering and poverty
Our spirit’s down forlorn
I want to help to give support
To help the poor to live
With food, clean water, clothing too
But what Lord can I give?
The needs are always so immense
My resources so small
I would not even make a dent
If I gave my all
Trust in my and in my love
I hear my people cry
Put your gifts into my hands
I’ll make them multiply
Thank you Jesus Lord my God
Thanks with all my heart
You have multiplied the bread
From us never part”