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We are needy
They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.
Oh my. Today’s gospel continues where we left off. The apostles are excited for all they have done. Jesus rightly wants them to reflect on the power of God in their lives, to rest and contemplate. But the people are needy. They are desperate. They long for the fullness of Jesus.
I think today we too live in such a world. There is so much emptiness. There is so much sadness and loss. People long for more, but they are not sure from where it will come. The are lost. It moved (and moves) Jesus with pity. And too often we Christians and Catholics are not providing the compelling witness to true fulfillment.
We know people are needy, but too often we do not fill their needs. We encounter people who are needy but we can be tempted to turn away. We can focus on the wrong things, fail to make a compelling case for faith, become wrong in our approach to calling people to a deep relationship with the one who can really fill the needy.
And so what will we do today? How is it we will help to fill the needy with all the things the good news can provide? How will we facilitate, by our witness, example and prayer, the encounter people really need to have with Jesus?
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