Mark 6, 30-34:
Sunday, 18th July 2021 (16TH OT B)
Last Sunday we heard in the Word of God how Jesus sent the twelve out to evangelise. This Sunday St. Mark tells us how they return and tell Jesus all that they have done in his name. The Lord sees that they are tired and proposes a time of rest in which they can share and analyse their apostolic experience. But the crowd, “like sheep without a shepherd”, won’t let them. They are eager to see and listen to Jesus, whom “they did not even give him time to eat”. But he sees their needs, “has compassion on them, and calmly began to teach them”.
Like Jesus and the twelve, we all need to stop from time to time in our activities, to seek moments of peace and enjoy the silence and the company of the Lord. We need the quiet to be able to reconnect with God. It is Sunday, the Lord’s Day.
But like them, we are also exposed to the fact that the needs of others call us to new activity, especially to exercise charity, to put ourselves at their disposal. May we too know how to “teach them calmly”. Having time for others, despite our many occupations, is something that Jesus teaches us by his example.
Sunday is our day of rest, to be used to regain our physical and spiritual strength. But without forgetting those who are close to us and may be in need of a friendly word to restore their hope.
Juan Ramón Gómez Pascual, cmf
