Sunday Reflections

“His Heart Was Moved with Pity”

The prophet Isaiah rhetorically asks why we would pursue that which does not satisfy.  He directs us to attend to God who will satisfy us not just with food that delights, but with life itself.  This costs nothing in terms of our earthly measures of wealth, but demands that we come to God heedfully, listening to God’s word that will nourish and sustain us. 

Our gospel reading recounts the story of the crowd of more than 5,000 people who are fed with just a few loaves and fish.  It ends with the startling words that all who were present ate and were satisfied.  We might suppose that a good meal shared by all was responsible for this result, but this word “satisfied”—especially heard in the context of our first reading—suggests that it is not by mere food alone that people are fulfilled. 

Indeed, there is much more to the story.  Those in the crowd needed healing.  We are reminded several times in the story that they are in a deserted place.  Here their physical environment mirrored their interior state, much like those who wandered in the desert of old.  They were divided and self-centered, as we see in the disciples’ attempt to ease their own burden by sending the people away. 

Yet Jesus stands in their midst as one who in love draws them together into a community that shares and is satisfied to the very core of its being.  Jesus was attentive to the crowd.  His heart was moved with pity when he saw that so many had tried to follow him.  He cured their sick.  When the disciples tried to dismiss the people, Jesus urged them not to desert them but to feed the people themselves.  He gathered the people around him.  He was present to them in their need.  He invoked God’s blessing on food that was broken and shared.  Clearly, the crowd was not satisfied simply from the food, but through all the aspects of the communal meal in which Jesus attended to them, gathering, caring, healing, and providing.  

This story reminded me of the first article in the Constitutions of the Congregation of the Resurrection, where it states that Resurrectionists will strive to witness to the transforming power of God’s love, not only in their personal lives, but also in community life.  In this way, they strive to “allow this love to overcome fears and heal the wounds that keep us isolated from one another, so that we can become a true community united in mind and heart.”  When Resurrectionists and all those who follow Jesus are able to carry this out effectively, they have imitated the actions of Jesus in today’s gospel.  They will have acted in ways that truly satisfy those who hunger and thirst.