Today’s Gospel describes two admirable characteristics of Jesus Christ. First, is His great sympathy for the suffering humanity living in “futility and grief and misery heading without hope to their end.” (Job)
      Jesus, seeing their great faith, “healed many who had various diseases and drove out many demons.” (Gospel)  Indeed, faith is an indispensable element for a much awaited miracle to happen.
     Second, is His intimate union with God the Father as manifested through His constant prayer.  “Very early in the morning, before daylight, Jesus went off to a lonely place where He prayed,” ( Gospel)  continually drawing strength from God whose will He came to fulfill, thus enabling Him to carry out His mission.
     It is precisely because of these laudable qualities that Jesus set out to preach throughout Galilee as “He heals their broken hearts, binds up their wounds and lifts up the humble.” (Psalm)
     As followers of Jesus, we, like the apostle Paul, are also duty-bound to announce the Gospel.  We have to make ourselves “all things to all people in order to save, by all possible means,” (1Cor) some of our brethren the Lord had entrusted to our care. We can do this by living our Christian convection.  And the God who empowered Jesus will definitely empower us also. Amen.