Daily Reflections ...

I heard a homily once regarding this passage where the priest said that the miracle was actually that many of those in the crowd would have had food in deep pockets in their clothing, decided to share what they had with the others. It hit hard. How often do we suffer from the short arms, deep pockets syndrome?

This is also a story of empathy. “Jesus had compassion for these people”. How often do we put our fingers in our ears and go “la, la, la” when we hear our sister or brother ask for something? Or when Jesus asks for something? “la, la, la”

It is really easy to put our hands in our pockets and our heads down and barrel through the world, trying to make ourselves oblivious to the voice of the one in need, or indeed our God.

How often do we offer what is in our pockets and actually receive so much from the experience that we don’t even miss what we gave away, whether that is our time, our money, our food, our attention or our smile?

Friends, let us dig deep into our pockets and listen to those who are asking and share what we have.

by Katherine Gilmore