“In today’s Gospel, what touches us first is not the miracle, but the gaze of Jesus. He looks at the crowd and He notices something others might ignore: they are tired, hungry, weak, and vulnerable.
Jesus says, “I feel compassion for the crowd.” He notices how long they have stayed with Him. He notices their hunger. He notices the danger of sending them home exhausted.
This tells us something very important: Jesus pays attention to human suffering. No one is invisible to Him. No fatigue is too small. No hunger is unimportant.
And this compassion of Jesus is not meant to remain only in the Gospel. It is meant to inspire us.
For leaders of communities—whether in Church, government, or civic life—this Gospel is a reminder that leadership is not only about policies, programs, or positions. It begins with the ability to notice people: the tired worker, the struggling family, the elderly who feel forgotten, the young who feel lost.
For people in the neighborhood, compassion begins with simple attentiveness: knowing who is sick, who is hungry, who has not been visited, who needs help but is too ashamed to ask.
For families, compassion begins at home: listening to one another, noticing silent pain, understanding exhaustion, and responding not with judgment but with care.
But here is the painful truth today: many no longer care for others in pain.
We have become busy, distracted, and self-focused. We scroll past suffering. We get used to other people’s problems. We say, “That’s not my concern,” or “Someone else will take care of it.”
This is the real danger—not the lack of bread, but the lack of compassion.
The Gospel challenges us today: Before asking, “What can we do?” we must first ask, “Do we still notice?”
Because miracles begin when compassion is awakened.
Communities are healed when someone chooses to care.
And the world changes when we stop walking past pain and start walking with one another.
Like Jesus, may we learn to see. May we learn to be moved. And may we never allow the suffering of others to become normal to us.”