Jesus took on human flesh 2,000 years ago to redeem us from our sins, restore us to a proper relationship with the Father, bear witness to the truth and teach us how to love. In particular, Jesus taught us that Christian love is sacrificial. An authentic Christian must be willing to make profound sacrifices out of love for God and neighbor.
Today’s short Gospel includes three moments in which Christ demonstrates a profoundly sacrificial and compassionate love for His neighbor. First, we have Jesus’s response to the death of John the Baptist. Upon hearing of his beheading, Jesus withdrew to a deserted place nearby. His pain was so great that He needed some time alone with His Father in prayer. He loved John deeply because he was His cousin and the prophet sent by God to prepare the way of the Lord. Jesus’s pain is a sign of His great compassion.
The second moment comes when our Lord’s withdrawal was interrupted by the crowds who had pursued Him. Jesus set aside His own need for mourning and addressed the needs of the crowd. When He saw the people, His heart was moved with pity for them, and He cured their sick. In the midst of His own great sorrow, Jesus still recognized the needs of those around Him and gave of Himself to meet those needs. In modern terms, the Lord always had His radar up. He never was so self-absorbed that He failed to see the pain and suffering of those around Him. Furthermore, He constantly sacrificed His own needs for the sake of those whom the Father sent His way.
Finally, at the end of the day in which Jesus had learned of His cousin’s death and had been interrupted by a needy crowd, He came upon another large crowd of followers who were tired and hungry. Once again, our Lord was moved by their needs, and He performed a miracle in order to feed them. Additionally, Jesus cleverly used this opportunity to teach the crowds indirectly about the greatest gift that He will give to the world, the gift of the Eucharist at the Last Supper.
For 16 years as a priest, I have been in the habit of saying a personal prayer as I lift up the chalice following the consecration. During that moment of adoration, I always give thanks for the sacrificial giving of the Son of the living God, that we might have eternal life. The Eucharist makes present our Savior at the moment when He most powerfully demonstrated His sacrificial love for every one of us, the climax of a life spent giving flesh to God’s unconditional, sacrificial love.
Dearest Lord, open the eyes of my heart to see more clearly the wonders of Your truth and love. Transform my life with the grace of the Holy Spirit, which comes to us in so many ways, but especially in the Eucharist. May I imitate Your sacrificial love and give of myself ever more completely to Your glory and the service of my neighbor.
Fr. Peterson is Campus Minister at Marymount University in Arlington and interim director of the Youth Apostles Institute.
(This article courtesy of the Arlington Catholic Herald.)
