“People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do.”

“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” - Mother Teresa

Gospel Text: (MT 15:29-37)
At that time:
Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee,
went up on the mountain, and sat down there.
Great crowds came to him,
having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute,
and many others.
They placed them at his feet, and he cured them.
The crowds were amazed when they saw the mute speaking,
the deformed made whole,
the lame walking,
and the blind able to see,
and they glorified the God of Israel.

Jesus summoned his disciples and said,
“My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,
for they have been with me now for three days
and have nothing to eat.
I do not want to send them away hungry,
for fear they may collapse on the way.”
The disciples said to him,
“Where could we ever get enough bread in this deserted place
to satisfy such a crowd?”
Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?”
“Seven,” they replied, “and a few fish.”
He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground.
Then he took the seven loaves and the fish,
gave thanks, broke the loaves,
and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.
They all ate and were satisfied.
They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets full

Today we reflect on the multiplication of the bread and fish in the Gospel. Many people —St Matthew states— «came to him» (Mt 15:30). Men and women who were in need of Christ: blind people, cripples and sick people of every kind, together with those who accompanied them.

Whether you realize it or not, we are all in need of Christ. Of His tenderness, his forgiveness, his light, his mercy... In him, the fullness of all that is human can be found.

This God made man, all-powerful, who loves us passionately, and whom we need in everything and for everything —«apart from me you can do nothing» (Jn 15:5)— paradoxically requires something from us as well. This is the meaning of the seven loaves of bread and the few fish that he will use to feed a crowd. If we fully realized how much Jesus counts on us, and of the value of all we do for him, as small as it is, we would try all the harder to correspond to him with all our being.