Feed Your Neighbor

I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now

been with me three days, and have nothing to eat (Mk.8, 2)

What a compassion on weak and hungry people! Let’s point out details: they were starving, some of them lived far away, some of them could grow weak on the way back – Lord saw all of these. This was not a general good deed that barely touched someone’s need. He not only had pity on those that were already weak, He not only saw what was obvious, but He did not want people to grow weak on their long journey back home and therefore stayed with them until late in the evening.

And He feeds them with the  hands of those very same people, who not long before that, got so annoyed by that hungry crowd that they were asking to let it go, proving that they had no food.

Disciples could be negligent occasionally, overwhelmingly tired; but despite everything they were very obedient. And when Lord put bread into their hands, they started to give it out. Having received from His Spirit again, they became transmitters of His Compassions.

May the Lord teach us to have a sincere and deep compassion, see sorrows of our neighbors and remember, even when we have nothing to feed their soul and body with, God will do it for us. Let us give out meager reserves to Him, and He will make them sufficient.

Let’s give thanks to Him for these words: “Give ye them to eat” (Mk.6, 37). He, the Giver of everything, wants to use us as His tools and grant, fill and console through us.

(Translated by Tatiana Rozzell from “Every Day is a Gift from God. Diaries of an Orthodox Priest”, author unknown)