Jesus embraced his humanity in full force, perhaps most especially through his teaching. Today’s gospel story is an example of his humanity. When Jesus saw the vast crowd, he saw their need, their spiritual struggle, and he felt pity for them (Mk 6:34). His compassion for their spiritual hunger motivated him to ignore his own need for rest and teach them many things. Jesus was known as the compassionate teacher. When Jesus saw a person in need of any sort, his immediate response was one of compassion. Jesus always responded to the needs of others with compassion, never with judgement.
We do not learn the specifics of what Jesus taught on this occasion, but we can be sure that whatever he taught was consistent with his mission. His mission was to show us the way to life in the fullest sense (Jn 10:10) because God’s glory is found in the human person fully alive (U.S. Catholic, 87(9), p.49). To accomplish this mission, Jesus came as the good shepherd who is the way, the truth, and the life.
Knowing the truth is the point of any spiritual journey—knowing what is real and what isn’t. Those of us today are no different than the people of long ago. We too have a spiritual hunger, and we want to know the truth—the truth about life, our purpose in this world, our relationship with each other and with God. Some spiritual questions are easy enough to answer; others not so much. Compassion for our dilemma in this regard is the motivation for the teaching of Jesus.
Jesus not only taught with compassion, however, he also taught with authority (Mt 7:29). Authority is the power to act on behalf of another primary person, or principal. The principal expressly confers such power by telling the agent to take certain actions or to say certain things. When the scribes taught, they cited the authority of various rabbis or the Law in support of their claims, thus appealing to the authority of others. In contrast, when Jesus taught, he spoke on the authority of God because he spoke only those things that the Father had commanded him to teach (Jn 12:49).
The authority of God allowed for the mission of Jesus on earth; “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Lk 4:18-19). Thus, what Jesus says is true and reliable, and we can trust him. What he says helps us to make sense of the world and our place in it. Jesus is the way that provides a different and more trustworthy view of reality than the world offers. Jesus has the words of eternal life (Jn 12:50).
The problem for us today is that we don’t always understand his words. For that reason, Jesus provides us with principles of good living rather than rules to follow. “I have given you a model to follow,” he tells his disciples, “so that as I have done for you, you should also do” (Jn 13:13-15).
Jesus laid out the first and most important of these principles in his response to the Pharisees who wanted to know the greatest commandment. His response to the Pharisees’ question is legendary—love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself (Mt 22:37-39; Dt 6:5). The example and teaching of Jesus reveal the fundamentals of this principle. We love God by following his Son in loving service to others (Dt 10:12; Jn 13:34). This is the heart of the corollary principle of loving others as ourselves. The details of how and when to carry out these principles in our daily lives, however, Jesus left to our discretion.
Jesus was a little more specific with the second principle, “do to others whatever you would have them do to you (Mt 7:12). In simple terms, this is the golden rule that we learn early in life. Jesus makes a similar point with the claim that we should “stop judging that you may not be judged, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Mt 7:1). That prohibition is easy enough to understand; not so easy to follow at times. Jesus showed us the way with his own treatment of the marginalized in society, despite the criticism he received in that respect (Mk 2:16). The marginalized in our own day deserve similar care and concern.
The third principle that Jesus offered for our guidance involves perhaps the greatest struggle for us at times—the principle of forgiveness. The Lord’s prayer provides a stark reminder of this principle in our appeal to be forgiven as we forgive others. This may not be easy for one reason or another. Thus, there is always need to remove the obstacles that divide us. With the compassion of Jesus as our guide, however, forgiveness is more likely. The compassion of Jesus helps us to be sensitive to the needs of others and to share their burdens. Forgiveness allows for a better way of seeing things.
This is the heart of what the ancient Israelites were searching for—a better way of seeing things, a better way of living based on compassion, love and truth. Such a life is possible because of God who heals, restores, and transforms our hearts. As St. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Ephesians, the eternal life that we seek is a gift made possible by the Holy Spirit who guarantees our inheritance (Eph 1:13-14). The Holy Spirit is sent in the name of Jesus to teach us everything and remind us of all that Jesus taught (Jn 14:26). We have this truth from the compassion of Jesus and on his authority. We can believe what Jesus says to make better sense of our world and our place in it.
