He could tell just by looking at them.
In the Gospel, Jesus hasn’t said a word yet. He looks at the crowd that is following Him:
“At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them
because they were troubled and abandoned …” (Mt. 9:36).
The Scripture text is inspired by the Holy Spirit. No word, syllable, or part of a word in the Bible is incidental.
The Holy Spirit chose these words through Saint Matthew. The Gospel text was originally written in Greek.
So the Greek root word can clue us in to the deeper meaning at work.
The word “troubled” comes from the Greek root word eklyō. This word means what Jesus saw “came from out of what was broken in them, what had been enfeebled, what was bound up in them.”
But, not only is the crowd broken inside. They are also “abandoned.” The Greek word there is rhiptō. This means they are also “scattered” because they have been “hit by a sudden motion,” and that hit has “deposited a heavy load” on them and “thrown them down.”
I bet if you asked the people in the crowd how they were doing, they would’ve responded, “fine.” And therein is part of the heaviest wound: the common trap to pretend and act tough as if we have no wounds.
The people in the crowd lied to themselves. Not deliberately. They acted as though they had no wounds. It was part of the part they felt they had to play: to look good, perfect, like they had “it” all together. And that made the wounds all the more painful. Disguise always does.
What does Jesus see when He looks at you and me? What is broken inside of us? What is bound in us? When have we been hit by that sudden motion of hurt, the wound, the heavy load?
Right there, in that place, Jesus’s heart is moved with compassion for us. His Sacred Heart moves when He sees that we are broken, bound up, and scattered.
The question is, “When we see our wound, does our heart move as well?”
God bless,
Msgr. Bransfield
