7 January – First Reading
Commentary on 1 John 3:22—4:6
Today we have a passage very rich in meaning and deserving of a lot of reflection and prayer. The reading is in two parts. The first part (3:22-24) speaks briefly of what is needed to be a true follower of Christ; the second set of verses (4:1-6) warns us against being deceived by false prophets into following misleading paths.
John begins by assuring us that whatever we ask, we will receive from God. And how do we know that?
Because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.
And what are these commandments? He immediately tells us that they are just two in number:
…that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
Beyond these two commandments, we need absolutely nothing else. All the rest that we have been taught may be called the icing on the cake. It is not that other elements of our Christian life are not important, but without these two fundamentals, the rest is nothing.
And it is not surprising that, when we live our lives with this faith and love, our prayers will be heard, because what we ask will be wholly in harmony with being closer to Jesus in commitment, love and service. As John says:
All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them.
It is a kind of symbiotic relationship which colours all ‘whole’ lives.
In the second part of today’s reading, we begin to consider what the writer says is the third condition to love as God’s “children”, and that is to be on guard against “false prophets” (antichrists) and against the world. It is a matter of distinguishing between the good spirit, the Spirit of Christ, and other spirits which can mislead us. It is through the Spirit of the Father and Jesus that we know we are in Christ, and that he is in us.
But John warns us that not all “spirits” come from God. We need to:
…test the spirits to see whether they are from God…
This is what we now sometimes refer to as ‘discernment of spirits’. There are many influences in our lives coming from various sources—all will come under the guise of good, but some are in fact leading us astray.
We need to examine these influences. Following the good spirit will bring ‘consolation’, a sense of rightness and peace. A wrong spirit will bring ‘desolation’, a sense of unease and restlessness. These are not at all to be confused with pleasure or pain. To choose a more painful way may well bring consolation, and we know we have made the right choice.
For John, the good spirit will lead us to recognise that Jesus, in his human body, is a revelation of God. It was precisely this that the Gnostics, and especially Cerinthus, denied, as for them all matter and flesh were evil. In God’s creation, we believe that everything he has made is good and is a reflection of his own Goodness. And our acknowledgement of Jesus Incarnate is not simply something intellectual—even the demons knew that God was in Jesus—but something that we confess publicly through our living.
To deny this is to be led by the antichrist, epitomised in the teaching of the Gnostics, who are the false prophets mentioned. They speak under the influence of evil spirits who are alienated from God. In the Gospel Jesus, too, warned about such false prophets (e.g. Matt 7:15; 24:11). So, too, did Paul (e.g. 1 Tim 4:1).
As long as we are of God and in Christ, we have nothing to fear. We do not belong any more to the ‘world’, the world of sin, the world of hate and greed, the world of corruption, deceit and violence. Those who know God will listen not only to him, but to those who are clearly his spokespersons. And each one of us is called by our Baptism to be a spokesperson, an evangeliser for the message of Christ.
We have to learn how to distinguish clearly where and in whom is the Spirit of truth, and where and in whom the spirit of falsehood resides. We can all be torn between these two ‘worlds’—the world of Christ’s Spirit, and the spirit of the ‘world’. Of course, much of the time we try to have our cake and eat it. We realise that we would like to be fully in Christ, but know that we have not quite gotten there yet.
Let us ask Jesus today to help us keep those two great commandments of faith (trust) and love, and to help us to be able to recognise his Spirit in our lives and reject all those false influences which lead us astray.
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Tuesday of Week 6 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Genesis 6:5-8; 7:1-5,10
Today we have the story of the Great Flood. Is there some deep memory behind this story and then reading into it a religious meaning? What was the cause of the Flood? Or was it pure myth? Was it some overflowing of the rivers going through the region that is now Iraq? Was it the result of a tsunami caused by a mighty earthquake in the Mediterranean? In any case, it is another ‘Fall’ story.
The New American Bible introduces the story in this way:
The story of the great flood is a composite narrative based on two separate sources interwoven into an intricate patchwork. To the Yahwist source, with some later editorial additions, are usually assigned 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 7-10, 12, 16, 17, 22-23; 8:2-3, 6-12, 13, 20-22. The other sections come from the “Priestly document”. The combination of the two sources produced certain duplications; also certain inconsistencies, such as the number of the various animals taken into the ark and the timetable of the flood. Both biblical sources go back ultimately to an ancient Mesopotamian story of a great flood, preserved in the eleventh tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic. The latter account, in some respects remarkably similar to the biblical account, is in others very different from it. (edited)
The New Jerusalem Bible also comments:
There are also several Babylonian stories of the Flood which show similarities to the biblical narrative. This last does not derive from them, but draws on the same source, namely, on the memory of one or more disastrous floods in the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris which tradition had enlarged to the dimensions of a worldwide catastrophe. But there is this fundamental difference: the author has used this tradition as a vehicle for teaching eternal truths—that God is just and merciful, that human beings are perverse, that God saves his faithful ones (see Heb 11:7). The Flood is a divine judgement which foreshadows that of the latter days (see Matt 24:37-39; Luke 17:26-28), just as Noah’s salvation prefigures the saving waters of baptism (1 Pet 3:20-21). (edited)
The setting is that mankind has become steeped in sin and immorality. As the reading opens, we are told that:
The Lord saw that the wickedness of humans was great in the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.
There was moral corruption everywhere. (And, because human nature did not change after the Flood, the situation did not greatly improve.) At this time, too, there is as yet no distinction between Israel and everyone else.
God, described in very human terms, “is sorry” not only for the creation of human beings, but also for all the:
…animals and creeping things and birds of the air…
Though morally innocent, the animal world, as creatures under human corrupted rule, shared in being judged. The heavenly bodies and the plants were excluded (because they would not have been wiped out by a flood).
Saying that God “is sorry” is a human way of expressing the fact that tolerance of sin is totally incompatible with his sanctity (1 Sam 15:29 reminds us that God, unlike humanity, never has to repent). In a far greater number of passages the expression means that God’s anger has been appeased and his threat withdrawn as soon as his people change their ways (see Jer 26:3-6).
There is one human exception to the universal corruption. Noah was a good man, who “had found favour in the sight of the Lord”. The destruction to come will, through him, become a reconstruction. Noah and his family will become a righteous remnant which will survive and regenerate, paving the way for the appearance of God’s people in the person of Abraham.
Much of the full story is left out in our readings.
Before the rains come, Noah and all his family are to go aboard the ark. The actual building of the ark according to instructions given by God is omitted in our reading. The English word ‘ark’ comes from the Latin translation arca, meaning a ‘box’ or a ‘chest’. (Consider also the ‘Ark of the Covenant’—it was a kind of wooden chest.)
Noah is told to bring with him and his family, seven each (male and female) of “clean animals” and “a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate” and seven “pairs of the birds of the air”. (For an explanation of the number ‘seven’, see the reading from Wednesday of Week 6 of Ordinary Time.) The ceremonially ‘unclean’ animals would only have to reproduce themselves after the Flood, but greater numbers of ceremonially clean animals would be needed also for the burnt offerings that Noah would sacrifice and for food. One might have thought that God would have got rid of all the ‘unclean’ animals altogether, but their continuing presence after the flood had to be accounted for.
We need to remember that we are not dealing here with a historical event, but with a myth. Myths play a very important role in human life and culture. A myth is basically a story which expresses a deep truth that cannot really be expressed in any other way. It is a way, too, of presenting deep truths to people who are uneducated and illiterate (but by no means unintelligent). Much of the Old Testament takes the form of myth, but we should not be concerned about this. In fact, it is this realisation that opens up to us the full meaning of passages. Fundamentalism and literalism have the opposite effect.
Seven days after they went aboard, God said he would send rain on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights and every living thing on the earth would be wiped out. This period of time is often used to indicate a significant period in salvation history (see Deut 9:11 and Matt 4:1-11—the temptation of Jesus in the desert). Noah did everything that God had told him to do and seven days later the rains began.
The message is clear: God protects the virtuous and punishes the wicked. However, we might modify our way of saying that now. Based on many other passages both in the Old and New Testaments, it is difficult for us to accept a God who takes vengeance on those who go against the way of life he proposes to us. It contradicts the teaching that Jesus, the Son of God, gave us, especially in his sacrificial death for us sinners. As Paul tells us, it is easy to understand a person’s dying for a good person, but not for a wicked one (see Rom 5:7). That is exactly what Jesus, with the full approval of his Father, did for us.
There is indeed punishment for sin but it flows out of the sinful acts themselves. Evil is destructive; good is nurturing and growth-inducing. Evil brings division; goodness brings peace and harmony.
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Monday of Week 5 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Mark 6:53-56
In last Saturday’s Gospel reading, we saw Jesus and the Twelve landing at a remote place by the lake shore to spend a day of quietness and reflection. But as soon as they disembarked, they were met by a huge number of people for whom Jesus, as their Shepherd, was filled with the deepest compassion. After teaching them at length, he arranged with his disciples for the 5,000 people there to be fed.
After this, the disciples were sent off in their boat to Bethsaida. On the way, they ran into a huge storm. In the middle of it, Jesus appeared walking on the water. When he got into the boat and commanded the wind and the waves, there was total calm. In our weekday readings from Mark, these two scenes are passed over at this point (but we will be reflecting on them at another time).
Today we have a passage summarising what Jesus was doing for the people. It indicates the tremendous hunger of the people to be healed and made whole by Jesus. The people recognise him immediately and go everywhere to see him, bringing along those in need of healing. Jesus, in turn, was visiting towns and villages. The sick, strong in their faith, only asked to be allowed to touch the edges of his outer garment, and everyone who touched him was healed and made whole.
Let us pray that our influence on others at home, at work, and elsewhere may have a truly healing effect.
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Thursday of Week 2 of Lent – Gospel
Commentary on Luke 16:19-31
In today’s Gospel, we have illustrated in parable form two of Luke’s beatitudes:
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. (Luke 6:21)
and
…woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. (Luke 6:24)
The linkage with the First Reading is obvious.
On the one hand, you have a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, both signs of great wealth. He also has a good table and enjoys the choicest of foods every day. While the rich man is sometimes called Dives, this is simply the Latin word for ‘rich’. In reality, the rich man is nameless. In spite of all his money, he is a nobody.
At the same time you have a poor man called Lazarus. He was hungry and longed, like the dogs, to pick up the scraps that might fall from the dining table. The dogs even licked his sores. Dogs were abhorrent to Jews, so this was a particularly degrading thing to happen.
What is striking about this scene is that nothing seems to be happening. The rich man is eating, the poor man is sitting and waiting. There are no words between them. The poor man is not abused or chased away, he is simply ignored—as if he did not exist.
Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me. (Matt 25:40)
Then both men die. Lazarus is brought by angels to the bosom of Abraham. But the rich man is condemned to an existence of great suffering in Hades, the place of the dead. The rich man now begs for even the slightest relief from the man he ignored in his lifetime. But it is now too late.
The rich man had his chance and he blew it. He had his life of ‘good things’ and he now knows just how ‘good’ they really were. It is now Lazarus’ turn to have the really good thing, the companionship of his God.
The rich man begs on behalf of his brothers that they be warned. Abraham replies to him:
They have Moses and the prophets [i.e. the whole Jewish religious tradition]; they should listen to them.
The rich man responds:
…but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.
To which Abraham replies:
If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.
This is surely a reference to Jesus himself, and to the many Jews who refused to believe in him even after his resurrection. There are people today who want some special signs from God in order to believe. We have the Good News of the New Testament and the living, experienced presence of Jesus among us. We do not need any more. We have all the guidance we need to lead the kind of life which will ensure we spend our future existence in the company of Lazarus.
And that life is measured not by wealth, status or power, but in a life of caring and sharing relationships. In a world of extreme consumerism, hedonism and individualism, today’s readings have a very important message. Those who are truly rich are those who enrich the lives of others.
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Monday of Week 31 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Luke 14:12-14
After giving the scribes and Pharisees advice on how (not) to choose a place at a banquet, Jesus goes on to teach his host what to do when he holds a dinner. He should not invite family members, relatives, friends and the influential rich from whom he can expect to get similar invitations in return.
Rather he should go out of his way to:
…invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind…you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
This will be a proof of the genuineness of his generosity. Sharing meals with friends is a lovely thing, but Jesus is making the point that our mutual entertainment should not be at the expense of those who do not have enough to eat. It will be a real act of love, and not be a form of self-seeking and self-aggrandisement or mutual back scratching in a never-ending entertainment circus.
It reminds us of what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount about loving those who love us:
Do not even the gentiles do the same? (Matt 5:47)
There is no real virtue in this. In fact, it can be a way of using people to our own advantage. It also reminds us of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. In such circumstances, uncaring self-indulgence can in no way be justified.
We might remark here, of course, that there is no such thing as pure altruism, that is, an action that is done purely for others with absolutely nothing for self. Everything we do, we do ultimately for ourselves. We have no choice but to seek our own good—to act otherwise would be quite silly and even wrong. It all depends on how and why we do it.
A person can seek self by using, manipulating, and exploiting others for one’s own gain. But a person can use all their energies for the good of others, and in doing so, there is a feeling of satisfaction in doing the right thing. Even one’s life can be sacrificed as the only way of satisfying self. For instance, a mother may not hesitate to sacrifice her life to save a child in danger. Not to do so would lead to a situation she might find difficult to live with for the rest of her life.
We do have to seek our own interests. We can do that at the expense of others, or we can realise that it is by sharing what we have with others in need that we become enriched in a very special way.
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The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Commentary on Genesis 3:9-15,20; Ephesians 1:3-6,11-12; Luke 1:26-38
The Immaculate Conception means that Mary from the first moment of her existence was totally free from the influence of that universal sinfulness which touches us all from the time we are born. The reason behind this belief (which is not explicitly contained in Scripture, and was only infallibly defined in 1854 by Pope Pius IX in the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus) is that only a totally sinless environment was fitting for the Son of God in his becoming a human being. It has a very long history in the Church (dating back as far as the 2nd century).
The First Reading reminds us that it was a woman (Eve) who was instrumental in bringing pain and suffering, the result of sin, to the whole world. It will also be a woman (Mary) who will be instrumental in bringing to the world its salvation and healing.
The Second Reading tells us that all of us have been called by God to share his love and blessings long before we even existed. This is even more true of Mary, who was singled out from eternity by God to be the Mother of his Son.
Today’s Gospel speaks, not of Mary’s conception, but that of Jesus. It begins the moment Mary says that ‘Yes’. The angel greets her saying:
Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you…
In our Hail Mary prayer, “favored one” is translated as “full of grace”. Mary is filled with God’s love and God’s favour and especially singled out for this moment. “Full of grace” has always been interpreted as indicating Mary’s total freedom from any taint of sin in her role as ‘Ark of the Covenant’. It was believed that the Incarnate Word should begin his human existence in an environment untouched by sin.
We can apply each of the readings to our own lives. We have been often the cause of sin and pain in other people’s lives. Let us rather be people who bring wholeness and healing.
As well, let us be deeply aware that, long before we were born, every single one of us has been called by God to know, love and serve him. We have been the constant recipients of his blessings. How will we respond? Unlike Mary, we were born touched by a sinful world. But we also can become filled with grace if, like her, we say a resounding and unconditional ‘Yes!’ to all that God wants from us. Let us ask Mary today to help us to love Jesus as she did, right through the pain of the Cross to the joy of the Resurrection.
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Saturday of Week 11 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Matthew 6:24-34
Today we continue with Jesus’ teaching on our attitude to material and visible things. We have to make a choice between the vision of life that Jesus offers or a preoccupation with money and possessions. They are not compatible. They involve conflicting goals in life and different visions of what is most important in life. The truly materialistic person may have a veneer of Christian practice, but cannot be a really committed Christian and vice versa.
Jesus preaches what St Ignatius Loyola calls ‘indifference’ to material things. Obviously some material things—like food and clothing and shelter—are necessary to daily living. At different times other things will be necessary too.
The attitude of ‘indifference’ is not that one does not care; on the contrary, one cares very much. But one cares to have things and to use things only in so far as they are needed to love and serve God and others for his sake. Jesus urges us to liberate ourselves from worry and anxiety about our body and material things such as food and clothing.
To be concerned about food because right now I am very hungry and do not have any is very different from worrying whether I will have food next month; to be anxious about what is happening when I am in intensive care is very different from wondering how long my health will hold up in the coming years; to be fretting because I have no money to pay my rent with the landlord knocking at the door is very different from wondering whether I will ever be rich.
Worry and anxiety about the future are a waste of time and energy yet we indulge in them so much. We are invited to:
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Likewise, the flowers in the field—they do nothing except be themselves and God takes care of them. And how beautiful they are! When their time comes they pass away.
We are often so busy regretting the past or worrying about the future that we never get to enjoy life. Enjoyment and happiness are only in the present—nowhere else. If we keep looking forward or looking back we will never find happiness. And yet it is right here in our grasp at every moment of every day. As Jesuit Fr Tony de Mello has written:
“You have everything you need right now to be happy.”
How our lives would be transformed if only we could really believe that! Because happiness can only be in the now. Yesterday’s happiness is gone; tomorrow’s does not exist. If I am not happy now, I never will be.
So to follow the advice of Jesus today:
…do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
God is in the here and now and nowhere else. He is always available.
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The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
Commentary on Isaiah 49:1-6; Acts 13:22-26; Luke 1:57-66,80
He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. (John 1:7)
John the Baptist played a unique role in the history of God’s people. He acted as the bridge between the Hebrew and Christian Testaments. He basically belongs to the former, but was present at the beginnings of the latter. At the same time, he died before Jesus had completed his work, and before the Church came into existence.
Jesus praised his greatness, but also said that even the least in the Kingdom was greater than he. Although he knew and proclaimed Jesus as the one for whom all were waiting, and the thongs of whose sandals he was not worthy to loose, he never saw Jesus as his Risen Lord, a privilege granted to the very least of the baptised.
His primary title is Precursor. His mission was to go ahead of the Messiah and proclaim his coming. As he said modestly himself, Jesus must increase while he himself must decrease. The success of his mission would eventually make him redundant. And that is still the role of the missionary today—to plant the church and then withdraw, leaving it in the hands of the new local community.
Many parallels
Today we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist. In Luke’s Gospel, there are many parallels between the birth of John and that of Jesus. Both births were announced in advance: in John’s case to his father Zechariah, and in Jesus’ case to his mother Mary.
The birth of John was a special blessing to his parents, who were already advanced in age, and particularly to Elizabeth. So when the birth took place, it was a special occasion of rejoicing among relatives and neighbours. When they:
…heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her…they rejoiced with her.
In this time, everyone thought it was a shame for a woman not to give a child, especially a son, to her husband.
In accordance with custom, the child was circumcised on the eighth day after birth. This ritual showed that the child belonged to God’s own people. It was also the day on which the child was officially named. Also in keeping with their culture’s traditions, it was expected that the child would be called Zechariah after his father. But Elizabeth interjected to say that he should be called John. This came as a surprise as there was no one of that name in the family.
The father was then consulted. Because he had doubted the angel’s words at the announcement of his son’s conception, Zechariah’s ability to speak had been taken from him. He was possibly also deaf, because the people communicated with him by signs. He replied by writing on a tablet:
His name is John.
This was the name the angel said should be given to the new-born child. This act of obedience on the part of Zechariah resulted in his speech coming back and his glorifying God, and as a result:
Fear came over all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea.
The whole event was clearly understood as a direct intervention of God. And people began to wonder about the child in front of them. They asked:
What then will this child become?
All the circumstances of his birth indicated that he was no ordinary child and that God had a special mission for him.
In the desert
In words similar to those used of Jesus, we are told that the boy grew up and matured. Probably his elderly parents died while he was young and he went to live in the Desert of Judea, which lies between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. And it was there, along the banks of the River Jordan, that he began his public preaching. He would have been about 30 years of age, the same age as his cousin, Jesus.
His calling to serve the Lord is expressed in the passage from Isaiah in the First Reading:
The Lord called me before I was born;
while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.
His unexpected birth was revealed to his father and his name given to him.
He made my mouth like a sharp sword…he made me a polished arrow…
John was an effective prophet and herald. The reading also implies the suffering and frustrations that were part of John’s life. In the end he was thrown into prison and, on the whim of Herod’s illegitimate wife, executed. But his life was not in vain. He became, in the words of the reading:
…a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
John was the last, and in some ways the greatest, of the Hebrew Testament prophets. As the preface for today’s Mass says, he was chosen:
…from all the prophets to show the world its redeemer, the Lamb of sacrifice.
It was he, who in John’s Gospel, points out Jesus to his disciples as the “Lamb of God”.
Apart from preaching a message of repentance and conversion to the large number of people who came to hear him, he:
…baptised Christ, the giver of baptism, in waters made holy by the one who was baptised.
He is presented as a man of total honesty and integrity. Perhaps it was this which attracted so many to come and hear him. And because of this, he ultimately lost his life when he denounced King Herod, who had married his brother’s wife. He was:
…found worthy of a martyr’s death, his last and greatest act of witness to your Son.
A model for all of us
John the Baptist’s life has a special meaning for all of us. We are, through our baptism, also called to be precursors of the Lord. Our baptism imposes on us an obligation to share our faith and to give witness to the Way of Jesus, both in word and action. There is no other way by which the average person can come to know and experience the love of Christ.
It is well put by Paul, writing to the church at Rome a long time ago:
…everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Rom 10:13-16)
In that sense, we are all called to be ‘preachers’. Our lives individually and collectively are meant to send out a message and an invitation—an invitation to come and join us and share our experience of faith, love and fellowship.
If we are honest, we know that we do not do that nearly enough and, in fact, often give an opposite message altogether. As the philosopher-unbeliever Nietzsche said:
“If they want me to be Christian, they will have to look as if they are saved.”
The signals we send out as individuals, as families, as parish, are really the only way that people who are searching for meaning in their lives may be led to find that meaning in the gospel. Let us ask John the Baptist today to help us by the way we live our lives to clear a path which will draw people closer to knowing and experiencing Christ.
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Thursday of Week 2 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Mark 3:7-12
This is a summary text indicating the tremendous drawing power of Jesus with ordinary people. It is in stark contrast with the preceding passages of conflict with the religious leaders who were out to destroy him. People were coming not only from Galilee, where Jesus was living and working, but from Jerusalem and Judea in the south, from across the river Jordan and even from gentile regions like Tyre and Sidon. They came because of all they had heard about what he was doing.
So great were the crowds that Jesus had to ask his disciples to get a boat so that he would not be crushed. Huge numbers of people who had heard of his healing powers wanted to touch him. They felt that was enough to be healed.
Some, possessed by “unclean spirits”, fell down before him and called out:
You are the Son of God!
And Jesus:
…sternly ordered them not to make him known.
As mentioned before, this call by those possessed by “unclean spirits” was not a confession of faith, but an attempt to turn aside the threatening power of Jesus by using the exact name of the opposing ‘spirit’. Jesus knew that the people were not yet ready for this revelation of his identity. Their attitudes were still largely superficial. They were coming for their own immediate needs and not as true followers. They came to get, not to give or share.
Nevertheless, Jesus would not turn them away. He knew that they had great needs which only he could satisfy. He was full of compassion for them and anxious to bring healing into their lives. And now, more than 2000 years later, he has the same compassion and desire to bring healing to us as well.
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