In the first reading the complaints and ingratitude of the people of Israel in the desert angered God and drove Moses to despair. God, however, remained faithful to His promises and took practical steps to ease Moses' burden.

The first verse of the Gospel is startling. Jesus has just fed a large crowd of people. The crowd seems to have become very excited. John in the parallel passage suggests that the crowd wanted to make Jesus a king. It seems that the apostles were not averse to the idea.

Jesus however, was having none of it. He separated the crowds and the disciples and sent the crowds off about their business. Then He went and prayed by Himself. Later He came to the rescue of the disciples who must have been both frightened by the storm and deflated by the dashing of their hopes.

There are many pressures on us which can lead us away from the simplicity of the Gospel. Peer pressure, media hype, fashionable ways of thinking and acting, contagious complaining and fear make us less than the people we could be. In the moments when we follow the crowd and are unwisely exalted or unnecessarily deflated we can turn to the Son of God and worship Him.