Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.”  The disciples said to him, “Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?”  Jesus asked them, “How many loaves have you?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.”  Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.  And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.  Those who had eaten were four thousand men, besides women and children.  After sending away the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.

“I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days…”  The crowd instinctively sought out Jesus, the wellspring of truth and life.  Did none of these people have other responsibilities?  Certainly.  But they left their jobs and homes to go into the desert to hear Jesus.  They chose “the one thing necessary” and would not be denied.  May we always follow their example and place the highest priority on the encounter with Christ in our life in its various forms.

            O Word of the Father!  How you long to find a welcome home in our hearts!  You seek comfort in the sanctuary of our inmost beings, a refuge from the proud and the great, and from those theologians who would deny the historicity of the miracle of the loaves and the fishes.  Truly, as Mary said, “he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts and lifted up the lowly.”