HE LEADS ME BESIDE STILL WATERS; HE RESTORES MY SOUL
(A biblical refection on THE 16th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [YEAR B] – 22 July 2018)
Gospel Reading: Mark 6:30-34
First Reading: Jeremiah 23:1-6; Psalms: Psalm 23:1-6; Second Reading: Ephesians 2:13-18
The Scripture Text
The apostles returned to Jesus, and told Him all that they had done and taught. And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, 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 lonely place by themselves. Now many saw them going, and knew them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns, and got there ahead of them. As He landed He saw a great throng, and He has compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. (Mark 6:30-34 RSV)
“When the people were like sheep without a shepherd Jesus took pity on them. Divine compassion is the heartbeat of the ministry of Jesus.”
This is the only place in his writing where Mark uses the word apostles. Apostle means someone who is sent on a mission. But the odd thing is that this mention of the action word, apostle, does not lead up to more activity but to the exact opposite … to withdraw or retreat from the pressure of being too busy.
In last Sunday’s Gospel reading Jesus sent out the Twelve with authority over unclean spirits. They preached repentance, cast out many demons, anointed many sick people with oil and cured them. Back they come, over the moon with excitement, thrilled at the success of all that they had done and taught. They could not wait for the next mission. How surprised they must have been when Jesus, instead of sending them out again, actually invited them to retreat. It had become so busy that they scarcely had time to eat.
To retreat means to withdraw, to pull back from what one is doing. The Lord was showing them that the powerhouse of apostolate is divine energy. The authority they had over spirits and illness was not of human origin. All the human effort in the world is of no avail in apostolate unless it is powered from within by the divine energy of grace. “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
There are 3 (three) phases in the Lord’s invitation … to come apart … to an alone-place … and to rest a while.
Busy people must recognize that if they never voluntarily come apart then they will soon involuntarily fall apart or be torn apart. Anybody who is sent on the Lord’s work has to find some space in each day to come apart. And on a regular basis there should be a more thorough retreat for some days. It is virtually impossible to withdraw sufficiently in one’s familiar surroundings. The mind has to be given every chance to clear out all traces of preoccupation. When going on retreat, every mile travelled is a mile from our daily routine and a mile towards a new freedom for hearing the Lord’s voice.
Seeking out an alone-place is not an escape from reality. For the heart of reality is the reality of the heart, that is, the innermost center of our being where God dwells as the powerhouse of apostolic energy. Those who are busy with the work of the Lord must return to the center and be alone with the Lord of the work.
A retreat involves discerning where and how God has been operative in all that we have said and done. In the alone-place we encounter the Great Alone. We come to experience the difference between loneliness and solitude. Loneliness is the empty way of being alone: it is an emptiness that can tear us apart. Solitude, on the other hand, is a way of fullness when we realize that our emptiness creates the necessary space for God. We come to reflect on God’s mission through our lives. We see if we have selfishly held back from the divine challenge whether we have been serving our own ways rather that the calls of obedience: whether God’s glory or our own success is our ambition.
Having come apart to be alone with God, the Lord’s invitation is to rest a while and restore our energy. Today’s responsorial psalm is the beloved shepherd psalm which offers some very appealing images of how God cares for us: “He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul” (Psalm 23:2b-3a RSV).
Sheep need water to drink just once in the day. Apparently they have great difficulty in drinking from swiftly flowing water. The shepherd must build a dam of stones across the mountain stream of find a pool of still water.
The water is an image of our apostolic activity. God is present everywhere, but when the pace is hectic we find it difficult to drink of His presence in prayer. Like the sheep, we need to find the pool of still time. It is here that our drooping spirits are revived and true apostolic energy is restored.
It is significant, then, that the only time that Mark mentions the name apostles is not in the context of further activity, but in connection with retreating from busy-ness. The powerhouse of true apostolate is divine energy. When we come apart to spend time with God we present our emptiness of mind, heart and hand, praying that God’s Spirit will be our fullness. “He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul.”
(Adapted from Fr. Silvester O’Flynn OFMCap., The Good News of Mark’s Year, Dublin, Ireland: THE COLUMBIA PRESS in association with CATHEDRAL BOOKS, First Edition: 1990 – reprinting: 1993, pages 203-205.)
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You told Your disciples to go apart to a lonely place to rest. You tell us that, too. There are times when we must isolate ourselves from our business, our busy-ness, noise, all disturbances. There are times when we need a lonely place, where You can heal us and renew us. We ask You to give us the grace to respond to that call from You. Give us the courage and humility to admit that we need to rest now and then, to pause and re-collect ourselves. We thank You for this invitation and for the grace to accept it. Amen.