Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The pastoral and the mission in the Church
The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat. So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place. People saw them leaving and many came to know about it. They hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them. When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. Mk 6,30-34
In today’s page of the gospel, Jesus’s missionary role towards the crowd is interwoven with that of pastor of the small community of disciples, who moves from place to place in Palestine. This dual role can be found today in the person of the bishop for the clergy and the community of the faithful, but also in that Christian married couple who are committed both in growing children and in proclaiming the Gospel. The duties towards the family and the Christian testimony are two different moments when developing the Kingdom: while working for the present, you work for the future of the Church and society. Jesus’s wish to let his disciples rest in order to to recharge their batteries is very pastoral: “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while”. And also his compassion for the crowd who seek him because they are thirsty for truth and need a shepherd is very beautiful: “When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things”. So, while Jesus speaks to those people, the disciples, sitting down, rest from the toils of their first missionary commitment. It is not easy, not even today, to find some rest for Christian parents, considering the several family, social and apostolic commitments, but that is life and it is beautiful as it is. It happens quite often at night, when we lie on our bed to rest a little, to receive a phone call which takes us back to our very commitments and problems. It is a sign that our life has a meaning to others.The following verses of today’s passage speak of the multiplication of the loaves, which Jesus performs for that the crowd which, after listening to him all day, get hungry while the evening comes. To him, evangelization comes before the human care that takes place in paying attention to the needs of the people. I think that today’s Church must meditate longer on this point, as it seems to us that the two moments are reversed, even to the point that the social aspect is the only one taken into consideration, leaving the missionary level neglected.