Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - Perserverance

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 01.04.22 | Aux. Bishop R. Barron

[MurphsLaw]

MEMORIAL OF SAINT ELIZABETH ANN SETON, RELIGIOUS

MARK 6:34-44

Friends, today’s Gospel shows Jesus’ compassion for the multitude in the desert. “When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.”

There is the motif of the people Israel in the desert after their escape from Egypt. Isolated, alone, afraid, without food, they clamored for something from Moses. Here we see people who are dying to be fed, and a prophet who is under threat of death. This crowd around the threatened Jesus is a metaphor for the Church. We have come to him because we are hungry, and we stay even when things look bleak.

[MurphsLaw]

+++When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved
with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.
By now it was already late and his disciples approached him
and said,
“This is a deserted place and it is already very late.
Dismiss them so that they can go
to the surrounding farms and villages
and buy themselves something to eat.”
He said to them in reply,
“Give them some food yourselves.”
But they said to him,
“Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food
and give it to them to eat?”
He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”
And when they had found out they said,
“Five loaves and two fish.”
So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the
green grass.
The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by
fifties.
Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to his
disciples
to set before the people;
he also divided the two fish among them all.
They all ate and were satisfied.
And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of
fragments
and what was left of the fish.
Those who ate of the loaves were five thousand men.+++