The disciples have just come back from a missionary journey (one of three mentioned by Mark). They have been doing the same work as Jesus: calling on people to change their lives and prepare to enter the Kingdom; liberating people from evil powers which control and enslave them; anointing people and healing all kinds of sicknesses (Mark 6:12). Now, obviously with some pride, they report back to Jesus all they have done.

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Time to reflect

They are happy and probably tired. Jesus and they are surrounded by crowds of people so that they do not even have time to eat. Jesus suggests they all go off to a quiet place to be by themselves alone.

There could be two reasons for this:
a. Jesus wanted them to have some quiet time to reflect and pray on what they had experienced. It is something we all need from time to time - even for a short period every day. Someone said recently that if a Christian has no time to pray, he has no time to be a Christian. That could be said of all of us.

b. Or, the disciples may have been enjoying their work just a little too much. They may have been basking in the admiration of the crowds and in the power they shared with Jesus. And Jesus felt they needed to be separated for a while to reflect on what they were really doing and where their 'power' really came from. "So they went off in a boat to a lonely place where they could be by themselves."

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Pursued by the crowds

But the people saw them leave and had a good idea where they were going. They began to follow the boat on foot along the shore. Perhaps there was a headwind which slowed down the boat's progress. In any case, when Jesus and the disciples stepped ashore, they were met by a huge crowd of people.

We are not told the reaction of the disciples. Maybe they were hugely disappointed: their day of rest had disappeared. Or maybe they saw it as another opportunity to show off their exorcising and healing powers.

Perhaps Jesus, too, was disappointed. After all, the idea of getting away was his. But, seeing the huge crowd, he was filled with compassion for them. Mark uses a very strong word here to indicate a powerful emotion welling up from deep within Jesus, literally from his 'gut'.

He saw them "as sheep without a shepherd", people without direction, without guidance, hungry for words of light and meaning in their lives. So Jesus immediately sat down and began to teach them "at some length". As we know from other contexts, they hung on his every word. He spoke to them with an intensity and power that they had never before experienced. Next Sunday, in the continuation of this story, we will see Jesus feeding them in other ways.

The whole story incident (combining today's and next Sunday's Gospel) is a symbol of the Eucharist: the feeding first with the Word of God and then later the sharing of the bread and fish.

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Time to rest

We might mention at this point that Jesus was not a workaholic or a compulsive evangelist. He answered the unexpected need of the people at this time, because he decided it was the right thing to do just then. Jesus never had the compulsion of those who need to be needed and cannot say No to a request for help. The Gospel does record incidents where Jesus did go away to pray and be by himself even though people were looking for him (cf. Mark 1:35-37).

Jesus was neither governed by the demands of others nor by a purely ego-centred selfishness. He responded to genuine need not to demands or wants, still less out of human respect. He was a totally free agent who acted according to truth, love and justice.



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All are shepherds

As Jesus sent out his disciples to preach and heal, he also sends us out to the do the same. In a way, we are all shepherds. Some are clearly so - pope, bishop, priest. (The word 'pastor' is the Latin for 'shepherd'.)

Jeremiah today in the First Reading has strong words for shepherds who are irresponsible and who let their flocks be scattered and destroyed. He was speaking to the religious leaders of his own time. It is a total contrast to the kind of shepherd that Jesus. Jesus also had strong words for some religious leaders, for whom he had severe words of condemnation. He called them "hypocrites" and "whitewashed sepulchres", who laid heavy burdens on others but did nothing to help people carry them.

We need to pray that our Church has effective, responsible and compassionate pastors. But we need also to pray for other kinds of leaders, including parents and teachers of all kinds - in a way all of us who are in any way responsible for influencing others.

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Agents of unity

Good shepherds, good pastors, good leaders unite. They do not cause division in communities. The Second Reading (from Ephesians) speaks of how Jesus brought Jews and Gentiles together in one family. He broke down the barrier that divided them, a barrier symbolised by a wall in the Temple. In fact, the Temple was a building of many walls, each one marking off limits beyond which certain people could not go. There was a wall for Gentiles, beyond that a wall for women, a wall for men, and a wall for priests. And even a barrier into the Holy of Holies into which only the High Priest could go once a year.

By his dying on the cross, Jesus broke down hatred and divisiveness and created a New Person and a new family not based on blood, race, nationality, gender, or class. He demolished the barriers that divide one group of people from another.

This is the teaching of Jesus, who reached out
to Jews and Gentiles,
to men and women,
to rich and poor,
to the good and the sinful,
to slaves and free.
to the sick and healthy...

He invited them all to belong to one family, his family, with just one Father, where all are truly brothers and sisters. This is the demon which we, as active disciples, most need to liberate people from - the demon of division. This is the healing which we most need to bring - to break down the walls of prejudice and help all to become one family.

The most beautiful thing that can be said of a bishop or priest, of a parent or family member, is that he or she is a maker of peace, a person who dissolves the barriers of division, who brings people together in love and reconciliation. This happens when all of us, through Jesus, "have, in the one Spirit, our way to come to the Father" (end of Second Reading).