“My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, for they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, for fear they may collapse on the way.”
Jesus, by these words, gives us a window to see into His heart. The first movement which we are to contemplate in Advent is the movement of the Lord. And here in this address to the disciples, Christ tells of the mercy which moves and fills His heart. It is a mercy that does not want to move away from the crowds, nor to tell the crowds to move away from Him. This moved heart of Jesus wants to stay with, dwell with those who have stayed with Him. In the prophecy of the great feast of Isaiah, and of the banquet set by the Lord in the psalm, the crowds would have had a foretaste of this encounter in which the Lord who walked with them, stayed with them, healed them and so dispelled their darkness, now would have them eat all they could eat and so gain new strength for their journey. In this Gospel, we have a foretaste of the Lord who comes to dwell with us in the Eucharist, and who wants our hearts to be more than satisfied with the mercy of His Heart. This Advent, have you begun to notice certain moments when the Lord is preparing a feast for you? May our Lord so move our hearts, that in these moments with Him we may gain the strength we need to continue our journey towards His House, where we hope to dwell with Him forever.