4 February 2023 – Mark 6:30-34
When the twelve apostles returned from their mission, full of enthusiasm for all they had done and taught, Jesus told them to retire for a while to reflect and rest. Large crowds were thronging around them so that they did not even have time to eat. To glory in their new power and the resulting fame and popularity could have been a great temptation for the apostles, which Jesus avoided by taking them aside. This again reveals the understanding and merciful heart of Jesus who realises the need for the apostles to seclude themselves and relax.
He therefore says to the Twelve: “Come apart, you alone, to a place
desert (kat’ idian eis éremon tópon), and rest a while.” Even for Jesus, as for each one of us, it is necessary at times to have the courage and strength to distance oneself from what one is doing, it is necessary to get out of the turmoil of the multitudes, out of the
noise of the crowds, from the whirlwind of occupations that threaten to overwhelm us. To work, to engage seriously with one’s whole person is necessary and human, but so is the dimension of solitude, of silence, of stillness. If we felt this call in our heart: ‘Flee, be silent, seek quiet’ (Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Alphabetical Series, Arsenio 2), we would certainly be more willing to find a ‘desert place’ in which to think, to meditate, listening in silence, our heart, to the different voices with which God tries to speak to us. Without fulfilling this need, we fall into superficiality, we get lost, we end up living without knowing where we are going.
When they arrived by boat at the secluded place, they were again joined by the crowd. Seeing them like sheep without a shepherd, Jesus had compassion on them and resumed his preaching and teaching.
For good workers…
– The story illustrates well the balance in Jesus’ life. As he does for himself, he exhorts his disciples to withdraw and reflect on the meaning of what they are doing so that their mission does not depend on unworthy motives.
– Jesus sees and satisfies the hunger of those people, a hunger they may not be fully aware of, a hunger for the Word and its teaching. Let it be the same for us too, to hunger for the Word and its teaching!
– Just as Jesus was merciful to the apostles, so too for us in all our decisions, in all our necessary and good choices, what must take precedence is mercy.
P JOBY KAVUNGAL RCJ