18th Monday "Heart Moved with Pity"

 In the Gospel today, it said, “When He disembarked and saw the vast crowd, His Heart was moved with pity for them, and He cured their sick.”

There are several reasons why the Heart of Jesus was moved for pity when He saw the crowd. We can certainly presume one of the main reasons was because the people were hungry and that is why He fed them by multiplying the loaves and the fish. Another reason would have been, the result of seeing the sick who came for healing and that is why He cured them.

Another Gospel says, “His Heart was moved with pity for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” In that case, we could see Jesus came to be their shepherd, to proclaim the Gospel in order to help them to get to heaven. When He first started His public ministry, He told the people, “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” So a shepherd also helps the sheep to come to know they are sinners and need to repent, because He came to save sinners. A spiritual shepherd helps the sheep to get to heaven and so helps the sheep to follow the “narrow path” toward heaven and to not take the easy road. He would also say, “If you want to be my disciple, take up your cross and follow me.”

When we think of a heart, we think of love. And so Jesus reveals His love most especially by His dying for us on the Cross as He said, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”. And it was on the Cross, His Heart was pierced. Today let us contemplate the mystery of the Heart of Jesus and how His pity for us, moves His Heart to relieve the miseries of our life.