“His heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mk 6:34). In today’s Gospel we are told of the story of Jesus performing an amazing miracle of feeding over 5000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. There is beautiful Eucharistic imagery here in this story of Christ which we see in the feeding of the people: they are told to sit in large groups, Jesus gives the food to the disciples who then go forth and feed the people, and then they return with an abundance of leftover fragments. God’s gifts multiply, they expand, they are ever growing. The Lord has given us an abundance of grace and mercy, and it is through this beautiful miracle that we see this. He desires us to look past the physical and into the spiritual, this is why he looks upon the crowd with pity, for he becomes the shepherd to a flock that is scattered and scared. We find this same miracle in the beauty of the Mass; the priest, through apostolic succession, feeds his flock of parishioners with the bread of life, the Body of Christ, and with it we are given the abundance of graces to go forth into the world spreading the Good News.
Reflection: How can I take advantage on the abundance of love God has given me?
Lord God, thank you for today and everyday. Thank you for your love and mercy. Please Lord, open my heart, that today I may receive your love and give it back twofold to those I encounter today. Send forth your Spirit, that I may be in your light in all that I do today. I pray, through our Lord Jesus Christ, your son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen.