The Compasionate heart of God

“Jesus, seeing the crowds, had compassion for them” (Mt 9, 36). Jesus’ gaze turns from the physical illnesses of the crowd to its disorientation. He sees “tired and exhausted crowds, like sheep without a shepherd”, in need not only of health, but also of guidance and meaning in life.

“Compassion” is the feeling that drives Jesus to deal with sick and disoriented crowds. Compassion is a feeling that speaks of deep and inner participation. The Greek word refers to the physical place, maternal love, the womb. It is a visceral, stubborn love that almost sees no reason, regardless of any evaluation of merit.

Jesus just loves crowds; Jesus not only feels compassion for the suffering humanity. Christ is God’s compassion for man, for every man and for all man. The compassion that God felt for our human condition led Him to become Himself a participant in our human condition and nature.

God’s compassion for man is that “the Word became flesh

and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14a).

Inhabiting among us, Jesus feels pain for the pain of the world, the great pain of man. Jesus is compassion, God’s weeping made flesh. Crying is loving with your eyes. What He looks at, with His eyes full of compassionate tenderness, is not only the vast human camp, where He has pitched His tent. 

Jesus sees a multitude charged with pain and fear. He sees flocks of sheep, lost because they have no shepherds. His response is a pain that takes hold of his insides. And he calls the twelve and entrusts them with these lost and suffering sheep: they will have to preserve them, guard them, save them with compassion. The apostles exist so that the experience of God’s closeness

 is a real possibility always offered to every man.

Sunday Ordinary Time Week XI; 14 June 2026