Grief in Action!

Monday, August 5, 2024

Jer 28:1-17; Mt 14:13-21

Today’s Gospel highlights Jesus’ way of grieving the death of John the Baptist. 

It is in his grief that Jesus withdraws into the desert to be by himself and pray. 

However, Jesus is compelled into ministry when he looks at the needy crowd. 

For Jesus, ministry seems to be the best way to remember and pay homage to the memory of John, who himself was a prophet and missionary. 

Maybe Jesus got into action because, after John’s death, the ministry by the two has shrunk into the ministry by one, and hence, Jesus feels the urgency of the mission. 

Or Jesus continued his mission of compassion, as he was known among the people. 

Because the passage on feeding the five thousand immediately follows the death of John the Baptist, we are compelled to see that Jesus’ model of grief is compassion. 

Even in his grief, Jesus does not forget the abandoned and the neglected. 

Jesus makes sure that the death of his cousin will never affect the mission they both came to do. 

Jesus’ model of grief inspires us to continue our good works, leaving our worries to God. 

Though it is hard, we learn from Jesus how we can do it. 

Jesus grieved not in passivity but through compassionate action. 

Let us pray that we may imbibe his example. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar