Just looking at the news today will show you a simple truth: we are broken. As a people, as a nation, as a political entity, as a community, and most definitely on an individual and personal level. The wounds are real even if not on a physical level. Hearts ache, people suffer, and humanity continues to live in sin to the point that even the right to life itself is being trodden upon in our society. The answer to this downward spiral is in today’s Gospel. We who are not yet freed from our own sinful ways must go before Jesus, the only one who can heal us from whatever is making us lame, blind, and mute. That’s what the Sacraments are about. In each of them, we come forward from the crowd gathered in the Body of Christ, the Church, and we receive that same healing that they received then. The same Jesus who sat on the mountain healing crowds is still with us today through the Church to heal and free us from that which binds us.
We aren’t supposed to stop there though. Our own healing is great, and yes our own salvation is very important. Jesus tells His disciples today that He has pity on the crowds. Then the disciples have to provide the bread that Jesus then multiplies into something greater. Yes, this, of course, prefigures the Eucharist and the Sacrament of the Altar. It also talks about our duty as Christians who have received of that Sacrament. We aren’t just serving the people who gather around, but all of the people in the world, more especially the widow, the orphan, and the refugee. We are supposed to take this gift that God has multiplied in our hearts out in the world to reach the margins, those people on the edge. That doesn’t just mean evangelization, but literally serving those who are in need. Being the hands and feet of Jesus, to provide bread to those who have none, that He can multiply it into something greater.
The bread is good. The food is good. Water is good. Love along with it makes it better. As Advent approaches and we with anticipation await Christmas, let’s begin to think of ways that we can take the love we ourselves have received, and hope to renew in a profound way on Christmas, out into the world and share it with others. Yes, meeting their physical needs, but also meeting them with dignity and respect. Loving them, and letting them know they are loved. Caring for them in a way that will keep them warm spiritually, physically, and hopefully liberated in some way to begin to turn their eyes to Jesus who can meet their needs in a way we never can alone. Jesus does not want to send them away hungry. Do our words and actions send the message of “I want to feed you with an everlasting love” or do they rather say “go away, I’m busy with my own load.”
A reflection on the readings for December 4th, 2019: Wednesday of the 1st Week of Advent