Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.

“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”― Elie Wiesel: (Romania-born American novelist, political activist, and Holocaust survivor)

Gospel Text: (MK 6:30-34)

The apostles gathered together with Jesus

and reported all they had done and taught.

He said to them,

“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”

People were coming and going in great numbers,

and they had no opportunity even to eat.

So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.

People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.

They hastened there on foot from all the towns

and arrived at the place before them.

When he disembarked and 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.

When was the last time your heart was moved with pity? Not the kind of pity that has been defined for us by Western philosophy, by Hollywood movies and Reality TV. Not the kind of pity that flows from a contemptuous and cynical heart. Not the kind of pity that judges the character or social condition of a vulnerable person. But Biblical pity. A pity that moves you to exclaim: “By the grace of God, I am what I am.” (I Cor. 15:10) A pity that is born out of the realization that we all share a human condition, we all share human weaknesses, we all share a need to be saved by a power who is greater than I am, a pity like that of Jesus of today’s gospel.

In today’s Gospel, we see Jesus’ heart stirred with pity. It was a pity that came from a heart that saw suffering, not as a sign of sin or weakness, but as an opportunity for grace and healing.