Saint Francis of Assisi by Ermes Dovico

GOSPEL PEARLS

The Human thirst for Truth

And he began to teach them many things (Mk 6:34)

Gospel Pearls 08_01_2020

When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said, “This is a deserted place and it is already very late. Dismiss them so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” He said to them in reply, “Give them some food yourselves.” But they said to him, “Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?” He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?  Go and see.” And when they had found out they said, “Five loaves and two fish.” So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass. The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties. Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; he also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish. Those who ate of the loaves were five thousand men. (Mc 6, 34-44)

After giving the water of His Word to satisfy spiritual thirst, Jesus provides bread to satisfy physical hunger. At the same point at which, for animals, the need for food ends, the human person’s search begins. It is God, in the Person of his Son, who is the only water capable of quenching the human thirst for Truth that is otherwise unquenchable. Each one of us has been created by God in His image, and for this reason if we are not oriented towards Him life has no sense. This is why suicides are proportionally more freqent in countries that perhaps are materially more wealthy but on the spiritual level are losing the faith. Let us make the word of the Lord ever more fully our own: man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.