16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus was often surrounded by crowds. They followed him through the countryside and gathered around him in the cities. They pushed their way into homes where he was staying. In one instance, they even tore away the roof tiles to reach him that he might cure a paralytic.

For the most part, the people who followed him were not the powerful not the wealthy and elite. They were just ordinary people, longing for someone to help them, to heal them, to bring them the Good News. Someone simply to love them. Their longing must have been intense, for we are told several times in the Gospels that Jesus needed to withdraw from them to a quiet place to pray. Their demands for his attention drained Jesus to the point of exhaustion.

But Jesus doesn’t see them as demanding. He sees into their hearts, and he understands. They are “troubled and abandoned” (Matthew 9:36). Troubled by what? Abandoned by whom? Certainly, the times in which they lived were difficult, to say the least. Many lived at a subsistence level, barely able to survive on what little resources they had, and others were even more destitute. The Jewish homeland was occupied by Roman soldiers, who were allpowerful and often brutal in how they treated the local Jewish population. The Roman tax system was oppressive and corrupt, with tax collectors able to overcharge people for their taxes and then pocket the difference. The religious leaders were powerless to resist the oppressors, and some openly collaborated with them to preserve their own sense of authority and prestige.

Given these circumstances, it is no wonder that the people felt troubled and abandoned. But Jesus seems to respond to something deeper, something that may be found in our own hearts as well. Human empires come and go, but sin and death persist and oppress us. The crowds longed for a leader to guide them a true shepherd who would care for them as a shepherd cares for the sheep entrusted to him.

It is no wonder, then, that Jesus looked to the crowds and “his heart was moved with pity for them” (Mark 6:34) ). For what is troubling them is the power of sin in their lives. And that is what troubles us as well. It is the very reason why Jesus came into the world to free us from the chains of sin and death by his own death and Resurrection. It is the very reason he calls us to repentance and offers us forgiveness of our sins.

It is not popular to talk about sin today. We can offer excuses, rationalize our actions and blame our circumstances. But Jesus sees sin for what it is and calls it out. It is sin that distorts the image of God within us, and keeps us from living as God intended. It leaves us troubled and abandoned, as it did the crowds of long ago, often without even knowing why.

Jesus could have looked at the crowds and condemned them, for some, no doubt, were simply looking for a “quick fix” to their problems. Instead, he was moved to pity. How humbling to know that God holds us in his heart and has such great concern for us, even when we so often fail to live up to his law. Just as God holds us in his heart, let us also hold God in our own heart, repenting from sin and seeking to truly live the Good News!