Altar Decor at Medical Missions July 23, 2006

Mark 6: 30-34 Medical Mission Sisters 10 AM

(opening paragraphs from homily)
You may remember that we did a brief unscientific survey one Sunday recently to determine the relative popularity of two gospels, the one according to Mark, the other according to John. There was no contest; John’s gospel was more popular hands down. But this morning we must suffer through a homily on Mark’s gospel, my favorite. Hang in there: the next five Sundays belong to most of you! You will be treated richly to John’s gospel.
In fact, in the gospel readings from this Sunday to next there is a deliberate and puzzling change. This Sunday’s reading from Mark is a transition reading and only an introduction to Mark’s presentation of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, sometimes called the feeding of the 5,000. But next Sunday, oddly enough and even puzzling to those of us who favor Mark, we reject the continuation in the narrative from today’s gospel; instead of reading Mark’s presentation of the miracle of the loaves and fish, we read rather John’s presentation of that same miracle. Well in any case this should be pleasing to you who choose John over Mark.
No matter. The sequence of the readings even if there is a change from Mark’s gospel to John’s respects the intent of Mark. In the reading today we hear of Christ’s compassion ("his guts," as Jake Donahue says) on the crowds that gather around him, a compassion that moves him to preach and teach. Today’s gospel is very much like the first section of our usual liturgy in which we experience the compassion of Jesus as he proclaims the word and seeks to help us understand it. Today we read about Jesus nourishing the minds and hearts of the crowd. Next week is much like our gathering around the table of thanksgiving and we read about his nourishment of their bodies in the feeding of the 5000....

(final paragraphs)

Because Jesus is compassionate, we also desire to be compassionate. Compassion, someone recently wrote, is the bridge between sympathy and action. It compels us to simple tasks: providing a meal for a family in mourning; for the benefit of others divesting ourselves of things that we do not need; devoting ourselves to study, building skills in language or medicine or art so that we can help others find themselves as God’s sons and daughters.
Compassion moves our leaders to found the renowned organizations that furnish us with large scale arguments for the primacy of love in this world. The Medical Mission Sisters are no strangers to the word compassion. May compassion in imitation of the Lord heal us of our weakness and continue to inspire our every day.