Karl Marx, who wrote the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, once observed from his window in London crowds of workers protesting unjust labor practices during the age of industrialization. Many among them were poor, marginalized, uneducated, and forgotten by society. Marx referred to them contemptuously as the lumpen proletariat—the chronically unemployed, the homeless, petty criminals, swindlers, beggars, and society’s outcasts. To many, they were people to be dismissed, manipulated, or controlled.
This is often how tyrants, the wealthy, and the powerful have looked upon crowds: as people to be exploited for one’s own purposes. But Jesus looked at crowds differently. The Gospel tells us that He looked upon them with compassion because they were “troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.”
For Jesus, people were never objects to be manipulated. They were children of God, capable of holiness and greatness. They were to be guided toward their full dignity and destiny in God’s kingdom. That is why Jesus sent His disciples into the great harvest. He taught them to care for people as true shepherds care for their flock—not like mere hirelings who have no concern for the sheep.
He instructed them: feed the hungry, heal the sick, cast out demons, and proclaim the Good News. Tell the people that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus reminded His disciples to be humble and to give freely what they had freely received. Faith, mercy, and forgiveness are gifts from God; no one earns them. Since we receive them freely, we must also share them freely.
Too often, however, we hoard grace as though Christianity were private property: “I have it; they do not.” But discipleship means becoming channels of grace, not reservoirs. We do not go to others in our own name but in the name of Jesus Christ.
At first glance, it may seem that Jesus chose His disciples randomly, calling whoever happened to cross His path. But beneath human events is the providence of the Father. Jesus said, “No one comes to me unless drawn by my Father.” Jesus knew the hearts of men and women, and the calling of the disciples was far from accidental.
He chose people of very different temperaments and backgrounds because He was preparing leaders for the future Church. Peter was steady, cautious, and dependable. Paul would later become dynamic, missionary-minded, and capable of interpreting the law according to the spirit of Christ. Some disciples came from farming backgrounds—hardworking, patient, and rooted in tradition. Others were fishermen, accustomed to uncertainty and changing conditions, adaptable to storms and unexpected catches. Yet both farmers and fishermen knew how to work together.
Then there was Simon the Zealot, a fierce nationalist, and Matthew the tax collector, someone whom zealots would have despised as a collaborator with Rome. Imagine such opposites in the same group! Without Jesus, Simon might have wanted to drive a dagger into Matthew. Yet in Christ, enemies learned to love one another because they both loved the same Lord.
Religion and vocation should bring people together, not divide them.
Remarkably, Christ chose His apostles from ordinary, flawed, and often overlooked people. He chose them well because He spent long nights in prayer before calling them. Every vocation is unmerited. No one fully knows why he or she is chosen. We are not better than others. Rather, it is through God’s power that weak people are transformed into a formidable force for good.
From this humble crowd, Jesus formed apostles and disciples who would eventually transform societies after His Resurrection and Ascension. These uneducated, unsophisticated, sinful, and stubborn individuals would challenge emperors, kingdoms, and worldly powers. They overcame threats, torture, and death—not through violence, but through love, forgiveness, courage, and perseverance.
Nothing in this world could ultimately threaten them. They were willing to die for a carpenter from Nazareth because they had encountered the Risen Lord.
Even today, the world tries its best to push Christ to the margins of life, yet it repeatedly fails. The more Christians are persecuted, the more faith often grows stronger. Why? Because when Jesus looked at the crowd, He saw not weakness but possibility. He saw people who, though they possessed little, could give everything to a thirsty world longing for peace, truth, and meaning.
There is also here a lesson in humility for us. We who have received the precious gift of faith, owe much to people who were once counted as insignificant by society. The saints, martyrs, and ordinary believers before us handed on this faith through sacrifice.
The dynamic remains the same today. It would be an illusion to think that we are somehow better than others. Modern humanity, despite its wealth and achievements, can still be spiritually poor—ignorant of God, greedy, self-centered, and lacking vision for the future, living only for pleasure as though tomorrow will never come.
So let us be careful not to despise or dismiss others. Those whom pious society overlooks today may one day become instruments of God’s transformation in the world. God often chooses the unlikely, the weak, the sinner and the forgotten to accomplish His greatest works.
For when Jesus looked at the crowd, He did not see worthless people. He saw them as instruments of the Holy Spirit.