Note: On Saturdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. (Mark 6:30-34, NRSVCE)
Rest. We all need it, and most of us crave it from time to time. But sometimes, we don’t recognize our own spiritual, emotional, or physical exhaustion. Jesus saw it in the apostles and shepherded them away. But when they got to what was supposed to be a deserted place, well, it wasn’t. People figured out where the group was headed and got there first.
And what is Jesus’s response? He doesn’t calmly and with compassion say something like, “Hey, would you please give us a minute? We can’t help you until we re-charge ourselves.” He doesn’t scream at them to go away and leave the group in peace. He doesn’t even sigh and say, “Oh well.”
No, Jesus’s heart is moved with pity. He sees their need for a shepherd is
greater than His and the apostles’ need for rest, and so He gives the crowd what it needs. He teaches.
The ranks of our saints are full of people who just wanted to get away from it all and live as hermits, praying and worshiping. But a funny thing happened: people observed Anthony of Egypt, Paul of Latros, Stephen of Obazine, Francis of Paola, and others—and wanted to be like them, live like them, be around them. Each was Spirit-filled enough to see that while their desire for solitude was based in faith, their vocation was to lead others: as teachers, abbots, in one case even as a bishop.
Rest. We all need it, and most of us crave it from time to time. But sometimes, God reminds us that it can be all the sweeter if we feed those who need a shepherd first.
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