Saturday in the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, February 14, 2026

Mark 8, 1-10

In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, Jesus summoned the disciples and said, “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?” Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They replied, “Seven.” He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also. They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over — seven baskets. There were about four thousand people. He dismissed the crowd and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.

“My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” Jesus had stayed in the wilderness with the crowd for three days. If we count the days as the Jews did, we see that they might have come together in the late afternoon, and the late afternoon until sunset would have counted as one day. The second day, beginning at the sunset after the first day, would have continued until sunset of the following day. Then the third day would have begun and continued. Jesus may have broken off his preaching around the customary time for the midday meal, the biggest meal of the day. Thus, the people need not have gone hungry for three entire days as we count them in the West, but this remains something to marvel at: a large crowd gathers to hear the word of a Galilean carpenter, untaught by the Pharisees or anyone else. They count it as little that they rush out of their towns and villages without preparations in order to see and listen to him. And they do not leave when they become hungry. They stay, as if to echo Peter’s words earlier after the feeding of the five thousand: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have known that you are the Christ, the Son of God” (John 69-70).

Let us see what Jesus is doing here. Matthew 15, 29 provides the context: The Lord came near the Sea of Galilee and went up a high mountain to teach. When people here that Jesus is near, they flock to him from all sides, hurrying because there is no telling how long he will stay in the region before moving on. Some of these folks come from no little distance, perhaps even from the northern parts of Judea. At a certain point, Jesus begins to teach, speaking of the Kingdom of God and the need for repentance to enter it. Just as in the Sermon on the Mount, he speaks little of himself but much of those who would follow him. The people are mesmerized. He does not quote other rabbis or the Pharisees but speaks on his own authority. His words find a home in the hearts of those who listen. The Lord teaches until sunset. The Apostles has seven loaves and some fish by the third day so it is not impossible that they ate at the end of the first day or during the second day but tradition does not tell us. The second day was spent entirely in teaching, and there seemed not much time for eating. But the fact that the people remained tells us a great deal about how the people soaked up the Lord’s words. They clung to him, unwilling either to leave or to allow Jesus to leavee. They were like Mary of Bethany: “One thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10, 42). They people knew that but one thing was necessary — the Word of God — and they did not want to lose it.

“They have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.” The Lord has held the crowd for this length of time. He could have fed them after the first day, or during the second, or at the beginning of the third, but he does not. We might wonder about this. He could, but he does not. Something greater than feeding the crowd is happening. Jesus allows the people to make this sacrifice in order to hear him. Grace does not come without participation on our part. He teaches us this. He teaches also to put hearing his word comes before everything else in life, including what we consider necessities or as natural: “He who loves father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10, 37). He allows them to feel their need for him.

And then he feeds them because he knows they need to eat, and he gives them more food than they can consume. This signifies the grace he knows we stand in need of to carry out God’s will and to gain salvation, and so ardently does the Lord desire us to be saved that he provides an overabundance of it to us:  “A good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over shall they give into your bosom” (Luke 10, 38). All we have to do is hold the aprons of our hearts open and he will feed us, and leave enough for us to feed others too.