God is Compassionate-HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 18TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 7TH AUGUST 2023

God is Compassionate-HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 18TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 7TH AUGUST 2023

Numbers 11:4b-15; Ps.81; Matthew 14:13-21

God is Compassionate

Pope Francis once said that the Shepherd must necessarily smell like the sheep. What this means is that we must be compassionate if we must be of help to others. It is someone who is compassionate that can dare to be sacrificial. To be compassionate is to be emphatic which means to put yourself in the shoe of others so that you are able to feel their situation and render real help to them.

In today’s gospel, Jesus needed to be alone to mourn not just his forerunner but also his cousin John the Baptist who has been martyred by Herod. He returned to a lonely place. It was enough for him put everyone away since he may not have been disposed. Yet, he did not send the crowds away when they located Him. The extent of our love can be measure by the degree of sacrifice we make. In his mourning state, He still felt compassionate for the people.

Here we find a perfect display of Jesus’ divine and human natures. As man, he was mourning; as God he will not abandon his children. No parents decide not to cater for the children because they are mourning the death of one of them. Beloved, Jesus never abandons us. Situations in life may want to suggest otherwise as it was for the Israelites in the first reading of today. When such moments come our way, we should recourse to the words of the psalmist in Ps.103:2 “never forget the wonders of the Lord”.

This was the particular problem Moses had with the Israelites. How could they have forgotten the long years they prayed for deliverance in Egypt, how God finally saved them from the hands of Pharaoh and his men. Sometimes what we really need to surmount difficult moments of our lives is to remember the graces we have received from God. Such remembrance will assure us of God’s undying compassion. An ungrateful heart cannot persevere trials.