19 July 2015
16th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Christian discernment is often not about determining the good from the bad (a moral decision), but about determining the better from the good and the best from the better.
Mark
seems to underscore this theme as he portrays Jesus and the Apostles looking
for a place of rest following intense activity. They seek the good of quiet and
prayer to renew themselves and their relationship with God and one another.
This is a good idea! But in this
case, the efforts of Jesus and the Twelve are confounded because the needy crowd hastens on foot to find Jesus. Somehow he cannot escape their demanding presence.
In
this account, the better idea is
shown through Jesus’ compassion for the people. They are in great need and
confusion, like “sheep without a shepherd.”
Jesus discerns that the better act of love, in this case, is to reach out
to the people—in spite of his exhaustion.
What's more, Mark is also presenting Jesus as, somehow, the fulfillment of the needs of God's people in today’s first reading as well! (Better and better!) Five centuries before this lakeside event,
the prophet Jeremiah spoke of a lost, wayward people badly in need of a
shepherd. The long line of kings had ended in a devastation of
land, temple and heart. It would take a tender Shepherd, one like David, to restore their hope and guide them with care and
compassion.
Jesus
is that Shepherd. Long after the activity of the day is done, the people continue to bring their searching and
needy hearts to the Galilean seaside, longing for the
Shepherd’s gentle words. We sit among them. We, like the people of Jesus’ time, recognize our need for him, that
wells up from within us like a gushing spring. (Best of all?)
The author, Ms. Barbara Gawle, leads Bible studies at her parish, Incarnation Church of Wethersfield, CT. She is a CBS graduate and the 2012 recipient of the Biblical School's highest award, the Lawrence Boadt Memorial Medal.
