# Food for the Hungry Heart - Bishop Barron Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 21 Oct 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75853507/food_for_the_hungry_heart_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you. Friends, we come now to this
[0:03] Speaker 1: marvelous feast. It happens every June. This feast of Corpus Christi,
[0:08] Speaker 1: of the body of Christ, the body and blood of
[0:10] Speaker 1: the Lord. You know, it's been on my mind a
[0:12] Speaker 1: lot because as I record these words, we're having a
[0:16] Speaker 1: great event in my diocese, in the town of Mankato,
[0:19] Speaker 1: which is about midway in my diocese. And we're gathering 5,000 people,
[0:24] Speaker 1: which is the limit of the civic center there. So
[0:26] Speaker 1: what's been on my mind a lot recently is, The
[0:30] Speaker 1: feeding of the 5,000. That number, 5,000. Why was that
[0:36] Speaker 1: the capacity of the Mankato Civic Center? Why did we
[0:39] Speaker 1: decide upon that figure? I don't know. We came up
[0:41] Speaker 1: with it. But it corresponds, of course, to this famous story,
[0:45] Speaker 1: versions of which are recounted in each of the Gospels.
[0:48] Speaker 1: It's the only miracle, by the way, with the exception
[0:50] Speaker 1: of the resurrection, which is recounted in all four Gospels.
[0:56] Speaker 1: It must have made a massive impression on the first Christians,
[0:59] Speaker 1: the fact that Jesus multiplies the loaves and fishes to
[1:03] Speaker 1: the feeding of this great crowd. What I want to
[1:06] Speaker 1: do with this marvelous feast in mind is to look
[1:09] Speaker 1: at this story. I'm going to look at the earliest
[1:11] Speaker 1: version of it in the Gospel of Mark because every
[1:15] Speaker 1: part of it is worthy of meditation. Listen now as
[1:18] Speaker 1: it begins. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd.
[1:24] Speaker 1: And he had compassion for them because they were like
[1:27] Speaker 1: sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them
[1:30] Speaker 1: many things. What's the first thing we learn here about Jesus?
[1:34] Speaker 1: His compassion. Kumpatsior, to suffer with. We do not have
[1:41] Speaker 1: a distant God who stands aloof from the world. No, no.
[1:48] Speaker 1: A God with a compassionate heart. who understands our pain,
[1:52] Speaker 1: our suffering, our need, our hunger. Jesus looking out at
[1:57] Speaker 1: the crowd and having compassion upon them is expressive of
[2:02] Speaker 1: the heart of God on display throughout the Bible. God
[2:07] Speaker 1: is a God of love and compassion. Never feel, I
[2:09] Speaker 1: know even when you're going through tough times, and we
[2:12] Speaker 1: all do, you can say, well, God is absent. God
[2:17] Speaker 1: is never absent. but always looking upon his people with compassion.
[2:25] Speaker 1: And then we hear, he began to teach them many things.
[2:31] Speaker 1: Mind you, this little story, and this is typical of
[2:33] Speaker 1: the Bible, they often paint sort of literary icons, I'd
[2:37] Speaker 1: call them, sacred pictures. This is a sacred picture in
[2:42] Speaker 1: many ways of the mass. How's the mass begin? with
[2:47] Speaker 1: the priest or the bishop operating in persona Christi, in
[2:50] Speaker 1: the person of Christ, looking out upon his people with compassion.
[2:56] Speaker 1: This beautiful call and response is established. Christ reaching out,
[3:01] Speaker 1: his people responding. And then the first part of the
[3:05] Speaker 1: Mass is dominated by the Word. Jesus, out of compassion,
[3:11] Speaker 1: teaches them many things. In our confrontation encounter par excellence
[3:20] Speaker 1: with Jesus, the first thing that we experience is his
[3:24] Speaker 1: teaching us many things. We listen to his word. You know,
[3:29] Speaker 1: we're hungry physically, yeah, but we're hungry intellectually, we're hungry spiritually,
[3:36] Speaker 1: and the compassionate Lord at the Mass, par excellence, teaches us.
[3:43] Speaker 1: They were like sheep without a shepherd. Oh, that figure, everybody,
[3:48] Speaker 1: throughout the Bible. Think of the prophet Ezekiel passing judgment
[3:53] Speaker 1: upon the bad shepherds of Israel, the bad leaders. And
[3:58] Speaker 1: then he channels the words of God. I myself will
[4:02] Speaker 1: come and shepherd my people. Well, here he is. Here
[4:06] Speaker 1: he is. Jesus is now the God of Israel in
[4:11] Speaker 1: person shepherding his people out of compassion There's the whole
[4:18] Speaker 1: Bible in a way. Now listen as we go on.
[4:22] Speaker 1: When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said,
[4:26] Speaker 1: this is a deserted place and the hour is now
[4:29] Speaker 1: very late. Okay, deserted place. It's a straightforward description, you
[4:33] Speaker 1: might say. But anybody listening with biblical ears, when they
[4:38] Speaker 1: hear deserted place, what do they think of? They think
[4:41] Speaker 1: of the desert that separated slavery in Egypt from the
[4:44] Speaker 1: promised land. They think of the 40 years of wandering
[4:48] Speaker 1: in the desert. One of the most painful times in
[4:52] Speaker 1: the history of Israel. Liberated from slavery, yes, but now, now,
[4:55] Speaker 1: 40 years of wandering in the desert. And what does
[5:00] Speaker 1: God do during that time? But he sends manna from heaven. Manhu,
[5:08] Speaker 1: that's the Hebrew sense of, what is that? Is this
[5:12] Speaker 1: mysterious bread from heaven, this food from heaven came? People said,
[5:15] Speaker 1: what is that? Precisely when we're going through the desert times,
[5:23] Speaker 1: that's when we look for the manna. That's when God,
[5:26] Speaker 1: out of compassionate love, will feed us. So that's the
[5:30] Speaker 1: deserted place. We're meant to think of this as a
[5:32] Speaker 1: sort of new exodus and a new feeding with manna.
[5:39] Speaker 1: The disciples say, look, send them away so they may
[5:43] Speaker 1: go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something
[5:46] Speaker 1: for themselves to eat. Straightforward description again, you might say,
[5:52] Speaker 1: but now read it more spiritually. What goes wrong with us, everybody?
[5:57] Speaker 1: When we try to feed ourselves, when we try to
[6:01] Speaker 1: satisfy the deepest hunger of the heart with our own efforts, hey,
[6:05] Speaker 1: go buy something to eat. Yeah, this is all of
[6:08] Speaker 1: our efforts. If I just get enough wealth, I'll be satisfied.
[6:14] Speaker 1: If I just get enough honor, then I won't be
[6:16] Speaker 1: hungry anymore. If I just get enough worldly success or
[6:20] Speaker 1: whatever it is, then I won't be hungry. So that's
[6:23] Speaker 1: the instinct. Well, yeah, go find something for yourselves to eat.
[6:28] Speaker 1: It never works. The puny food that we can find
[6:34] Speaker 1: through our own efforts will never satisfy us. So what
[6:40] Speaker 1: is the answer? Well, now listen, listen now to this story.
[6:44] Speaker 1: But he, Jesus, answered them, you give them something to eat.
[6:50] Speaker 1: And they said, are we to go and buy 200
[6:52] Speaker 1: denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat? Okay.
[6:57] Speaker 1: You feed them, the Lord says. And they said, well,
[6:59] Speaker 1: I mean, from our own resources, we can't do it. Well, yes, right, right.
[7:06] Speaker 1: But watch the dynamic. He wants them to feed the crowd.
[7:12] Speaker 1: He wants them to contribute even the little they have
[7:18] Speaker 1: as long as they give it to him. As long
[7:22] Speaker 1: as they entrust the little they have to him, then
[7:26] Speaker 1: they can feed the crowd. See, it's a marvelous sort
[7:30] Speaker 1: of balance or tension at the heart of the Christian life.
[7:32] Speaker 1: You know, on the one hand, Jesus could just snap
[7:35] Speaker 1: his fingers and feed everybody. God will simply take care
[7:39] Speaker 1: of it. But see, he gives us the privilege. He
[7:41] Speaker 1: gives us this wonderful prerogative of cooperating with his grace.
[7:47] Speaker 1: So what little do you have? Give it to me
[7:52] Speaker 1: and you will find it multiplied unto the feeding of
[7:55] Speaker 1: this massive crowd. Now, everybody, think of the history of
[8:00] Speaker 1: the church. How many times somebody said, I mean, Lord,
[8:06] Speaker 1: what do I have? But but I'm going to give
[8:08] Speaker 1: you the little I got and then found it multiplied.
[8:12] Speaker 1: Think of someone like Francis of Assisi. Francis, rebuild my church.
[8:16] Speaker 1: And so this kind of goofball kid goes around, you know,
[8:19] Speaker 1: reconstructing this broken down church. He gave, listen to me,
[8:26] Speaker 1: he gave Christ the little bit that he had, but
[8:30] Speaker 1: Christ multiplied it unto the feeding of the world. Think
[8:35] Speaker 1: now of the Franciscan order stretching across space and time
[8:38] Speaker 1: to the present day and across the world. Think of
[8:43] Speaker 1: Mother Teresa, this little tiny nun, you know, and she
[8:46] Speaker 1: hears the voice, are you willing to serve me in
[8:50] Speaker 1: the poorest of the poor? And so this little tiny lady,
[8:52] Speaker 1: she had nothing. She had no money, nobody with her.
[8:56] Speaker 1: She had no institutional support behind her, nothing. But the
[9:00] Speaker 1: little she had, Her energy and her love and her
[9:04] Speaker 1: mind and her dedication she gave to Christ. And she
[9:08] Speaker 1: found it then multiplied unto the feeding of the world.
[9:13] Speaker 1: Think of her order, the missionaries of charity spreading across
[9:18] Speaker 1: space and time. Again and again that story is told.
[9:24] Speaker 1: You feed them. Give me the little bit that you have.
[9:28] Speaker 1: And if you give it in the right spirit, you
[9:31] Speaker 1: will find it multiplied. And of course, that's what happens
[9:35] Speaker 1: is the five loaves and the two fish, but they're
[9:38] Speaker 1: multiplied onto the feeding of this massive crowd of 5,000.
[9:43] Speaker 1: Think of something else here. It says before the multiplication,
[9:48] Speaker 1: he ordered them to sit down in groups on the
[9:51] Speaker 1: green grass. I say, okay, the green grass, I guess
[9:55] Speaker 1: there was grass around. But again, listen with biblical ears.
[10:00] Speaker 1: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He
[10:03] Speaker 1: makes me lie down in green pastures. Remember at the beginning,
[10:09] Speaker 1: he looked upon them like sheep without a shepherd. There
[10:12] Speaker 1: is the compassion of God. I myself will come and
[10:15] Speaker 1: shepherd my people. Well, here he's doing it. He's led
[10:19] Speaker 1: them to verdant pastures, to green pastures, and there he
[10:24] Speaker 1: lays out a banquet for them. Now, remember I told
[10:28] Speaker 1: you at the beginning of this story, it's like the Mass.
[10:32] Speaker 1: Jesus looks out at his people. He's moved with compassion,
[10:35] Speaker 1: and so he teaches them. There's the liturgy of the Word.
[10:41] Speaker 1: What is this now? What is this but the liturgy
[10:45] Speaker 1: of the Eucharist? Look at the Offertory. Catholics, you know this,
[10:50] Speaker 1: is a couple of people will bring forward to the
[10:53] Speaker 1: priest a little wine, a little water, a few morsels
[10:59] Speaker 1: of bread. It's the little bit we have. There's a
[11:03] Speaker 1: collection taken too at that time. That's not just extraneous.
[11:06] Speaker 1: That's part of it, is we're giving to Christ the
[11:10] Speaker 1: little bit that we have. But that little ciborium of bread,
[11:15] Speaker 1: that little bit of wine and water, what happens to it?
[11:19] Speaker 1: It is transubstantiated. It is elevated, yes, unto the feeding
[11:27] Speaker 1: of the soul to eternal life. That little bread and
[11:31] Speaker 1: wine would satisfy the body for about five minutes, but transubstantiated,
[11:38] Speaker 1: elevated into the body and blood of Christ, it feeds
[11:41] Speaker 1: the soul to eternal life. You see, here's the second
[11:45] Speaker 1: part of the Mass. as the people lie down in
[11:48] Speaker 1: verdant pastures, and the Lord, having multiplied what they gave him,
[11:53] Speaker 1: eat to their satisfaction. Marvelous, isn't it? Marvelous. And then, listen,
[12:01] Speaker 1: all ate and were filled. There it is. Hey, go
[12:06] Speaker 1: find some for yourself. That'll never fill you up. Trust me,
[12:11] Speaker 1: it'll never fill you up. But the food that Christ gives...
[12:16] Speaker 1: His own body and blood. That will satisfy you. They
[12:21] Speaker 1: ate until they had their fill. And then they took
[12:25] Speaker 1: up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish.
[12:31] Speaker 1: Twelve baskets. Again, he lists with biblical ears. Twelve. The
[12:35] Speaker 1: twelve tribes. The twelve apostles. Twelve. A certain number of
[12:39] Speaker 1: fulfillment and perfection. The return of the exiles. The twelve apostles.
[12:45] Speaker 1: This food is meant to feed the whole world. That's
[12:48] Speaker 1: the idea. The 12 apostles go out to the ends
[12:51] Speaker 1: of the world. This is not meant just for these 5,000,
[12:55] Speaker 1: but meant for the thousands upon thousands, millions upon millions
[12:59] Speaker 1: across the centuries who'll be fed by Christ. See, when
[13:04] Speaker 1: it comes to us, we tend to cling to things
[13:06] Speaker 1: and then they disappear. We lose the little we think
[13:10] Speaker 1: we have. But when you are hooked on to the
[13:13] Speaker 1: divine power, what do you find? you find fulfillment and
[13:18] Speaker 1: then superabundance, a fulfillment beyond fulfillment. Twelve baskets left over, yes,
[13:27] Speaker 1: to the feeding of the whole world. So everybody, in
[13:30] Speaker 1: the Feast of Corpus Christi, have before your mind's eye
[13:35] Speaker 1: the compassionate Christ looking out at you right now, perhaps lost,
[13:40] Speaker 1: certainly hungry. He teaches you And then he feeds you. How? Well,
[13:48] Speaker 1: if you give him the little bit you have, you
[13:51] Speaker 1: will find that multiplied unto the deepest satisfaction of your soul.
[13:57] Speaker 1: And God bless you.

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