“I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart” (Hos 2,16) Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 14:13-21.

Book of Numbers 11:4b-15. 

The children of Israel lamented, "Would that we had meat for food! 

We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 

But now we are famished; we see nothing before us but this manna." 

Manna was like coriander seed and had the appearance of bdellium. 

When they had gone about and gathered it up, the people would grind it between millstones or pound it in a mortar, then cook it in a pot and make it into loaves, which tasted like cakes made with oil. 

At night, when the dew fell upon the camp, the manna also fell. 

When Moses heard the people, family after family, crying at the entrance of their tents, so that the LORD became very angry, he was grieved. 

"Why do you treat your servant so badly?" Moses asked the LORD. "Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people? 

Was it I who conceived all this people? or was it I who gave them birth, that you tell me to carry them at my bosom, like a foster father carrying an infant, to the land you have promised under oath to their fathers? 

Where can I get meat to give to all this people? For they are crying to me, 'Give us meat for our food.' 

I cannot carry all this people by myself, for they are too heavy for me. 

If this is the way you will deal with me, then please do me the favor of killing me at once, so that I need no longer face this distress." 

Psalms 81(80):12-13.14-15.16-17. 

“My people heard not my voice, 

and Israel obeyed me not; 

So I gave them up to the hardness of their hearts; 

they walked according to their own counsels." 

"If only my people would hear me, 

and Israel walk in my ways, 

Quickly would I humble their enemies; 

against their foes I would turn my hand." 

“Those who hated the LORD would seek to flatter me, 

but their fate would endure forever, 

While Israel I would feed with the best of wheat, 

and with honey from the rock I would fill them.” 

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 14:13-21.

When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns.

When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick. 

When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said, "This is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves." 

(Jesus) said to them, "There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves." 

But they said to him, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have here." 

Then he said, "Bring them here to me," 

and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.

They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over --twelve wicker baskets full.

Those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children. 

“I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart” (Hos 2,16)

Matthew relates more fully [than Mark] how he took pity on them. He says: “And he took pity on them and cured their sick.” This is what it means really to take pity on the poor, and on those who have no one to guide them: to open the way of truth to them by teaching to heal their physical infirmities, and to make them want to praise the divine generosity by feeding them when they are hungry as Jesus did...

But Jesus tested the crowd's faith, and having done so he gave it a fitting reward. He sought out a lonely place to see if they would take the trouble to follow him. For their part, they showed how concerned they were for their salvation by the effort they made in going along the deserted road not on donkeys or in carts of various kinds, but on foot. 

In return Jesus welcomed those weary, ignorant, sick, and hungry people, instructing, healing and feeding them as a kindly savior and physician, and so letting them know how pleased he is by believers' devotion to him.