For those who are dealing with mental health issues, addictions, anxiety, depressions, or loneliness, the holiday season can be a very difficult time of the year. In today’s Gospel, Jesus reaches to the crowds. In the crowds are those who are struggling through life and those who are on the margins. Before Jesus gives them something to eat through the miracle of the loaves and the fish, he heals many in the crowd of their afflictions. Jesus reaches out to the the lame, the blind, the deformed, and the mute, and he makes them whole. Jesus is not just interested in feeding people physically. He wants to feed them spiritually. He is concerned for their entire being.
The eternal life that we receive in Jesus is foreshadowed by the prophet Isaiah in the image of the great banquet to which God invites us. It is a place where the brokenness of life here on earth is not present any longer.
Jesus offers healing to us as well. As I mention when we offer the anointing of the sick at mass, all of us need healing on some level, whether it be body, mind, or spirit. He invites us to a fulness of life that only he can offer.
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