There is a definite momentum that is lived out when one is a parent raising kids. I find myself gazing at my sons every day, watching their mannerisms develop, observing how they interact with each other, how they resolve issues, and how they play together. I also find myself comforting, encouraging, and cheering them on at different moments in life. Holding both of them as infants seems like it was yesterday, and now they run around outside and in the house, crawling and jumping everywhere. I understand the sentiment that seeing them grow up happens in the blink of an eye.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gazes at two groups of people. I wonder what he saw? As he gazed out into the crowd, “Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.” Did he see fear on their faces? Did he see people exhausted from their journey, longing for direction? Whatever he saw, he was moved in the depths of his human heart for each of them.

The second group he knew intimately. He looked at them and called them by name. He charged them: “Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons.” He told them to give without counting the costs. He wanted his disciples to serve the lost, destitute, and the estranged.

Jesus looks at us today. As a loving father, he knows what stirs the depths of hearts, what makes us anxious and unsure of the future. He calls us to be in community. Pope Leo XIV speaks on the need to be a community in a digital age. He says, “The digital culture multiplies connections and offers new opportunities for interaction; yet, the human heart retains an irrevocable need for genuine closeness. I invite everyone to cherish places and times where physical presence remains crucial, such as shared meals, Christian community gatherings, time spent with the lonely and serving the poor“ (Magnifica Humanitas 239).

Our Lord gives us to each other to serve each other, to walk with each other, to remember that we are not alone. The harvest is abundant! We are Eucharistic Christians. Let us be on our way.