When He saw the Crowds

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him. (Matthew 5:1)

This verse is merely a transitional sentence used by Matthew to bring Jesus from healing the multitudes to the Sermon on the Mount. Yet as seemingly insignificant as it appears, it struck me one day as I was trying to picture the scene. "When he saw the crowds..." Jesus didn't just see the crowds with an absent-minded glace, it penetrated deeper. I think he saw their hunger and thirst for.... something.... they couldn't name it but they knew Jesus had it. Jesus knew what they were longing for: the truth. He longed to give them this Truth; his word. In short, he long to give them himself, the Truth, the Word. The sermon on the Mount isn't simply a teaching or a talk. It is Jesus giving himself, feeding the crowd by his word. This calls to mind the Mass. We aren't fed by the Eucharist alone but by the Word of God, by the Truth that the Church guards and teaches.