"My heart is moved with pity for the crowd." | Saturday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

From the responsorial psalm: "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart. Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge."

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mark 8:1-10, today's readings)

His disciples answered him, "Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?" Still he asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" They replied, "Seven."

In this passage known as the Feeding of the Four Thousand, the words Jesus speaks are as profound as the miracle he performs. What was left over after the miracle also speaks of God's abundant mercy—seven basketsful of fragments. Aware of the physical needs of the crowd following him for three days, Jesus feels great compassion for them, and we hear him say, "My heart is moved with pity for the crowd." His care for them extends beyond their physical presence with him: "If I send them away hungry to their homes," Jesus says, "they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance." The great distance they have come is an expression of their desire to be with the Lord, to stay with him. All-knowing and ever merciful, Jesus not only supplies them with food to satisfy hunger but with the fulfillment of our deepest longings.

God, help me trust that you look to the needs of your people at all times with compassion and mercy. What I tend to think I need during the day turns out to be not a need at all but more the fulfillment of requirements I set for myself. Jesus looks out over the crowd and sees what they need and immediately provides for them. Let me put myself in the sometimes uncomfortable disposition to receive your mercy and be fed by you.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.