Saturday in the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, February 6, 2021

Mark 6:30-34

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 Jesus 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.

The Gospel reading for today’s Mass follows the events of Mark 6, 7-13, in which the Lord sent out his Apostles on mission.  Here, we see them return, exhausted, but crowned with success.  They had “preached that men should do penance: and they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them” (Mark 6, 12-13).  They returned to the Lord at the place he had designated for them and at the time he had appointed, and they “reported all that they had done and taught”.  The Lord approved of their work, and sympathized with their worn out state: “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”  The Lord noticed when the people around him were hungry or tired or sick or were running out of wine at their wedding feasts.  He has the eye of a servant intent on his service and on pleasing his master, and he provides aid in due season.  His Apostles are weary and he would take them to a quiet location to eat and sleep.  At the same time, he plans to reveal a fact that will benefit them later when they are preaching in foreign lands.

“People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat.”  Mark’s detail here indicates that the Lord had made it easy for the Apostles to find him when their mission was over by telling them to come to a popular place: a crossroads or a marketplace in one of the Galilean towns.  After they had excitedly told Jesus how they had fared in their travels, the Lord and they “went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.”  The Greek text says “the boat”, as opposed to “a boat”, which suggests Jesus and the Apostles met up at Capernaum where Peter still kept his fishing boat.  The Lord seemed to want to offer them a break of some days in this “deserted place”, or it would hardly be worthwhile to go to all the trouble of getting there.  First, they would have stocked up on their provisions in the town, and then headed out.

However, “People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.”  Jesus lay low during the time his Apostles had been away, keeping mostly to himself, perhaps spending his time in the wild country around the city where he preferred to pray.  Now that the Apostles had returned and Jesus was publicly meeting them, it would have appeared that he would resume preaching and healing.  Many in Capernaum would have gone off to apprise their friends and relatives in the nearby towns of this so that they could come and listen and be healed of their afflictions.  When the people saw the Lord and his Apostles get into their boat and head out, they worked out about where they would go, and “hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them.”  Possibly people had heard the Lord or the Apostles talking.  They might have seen the direction the boat was taking and deduced their destination accordingly.  The place mighty already have been known as a place the Lord used as a retreat.  The deserted place must not have been very far from Capernaum.  But what are we to make of the fact that the people “arrived at the place before them”?  Certainly this speaks to the people’s need for him, whether to hear the word of God or to be freed of demonic possession or some illness or other condition.  It also highlights a certain recklessness, in that the people did not know for sure that he was going to this or that place, and they might wind up running all over the countryside looking for him.  Now, working people cannot just close up shop and chase up and down a seacoast looking for someone.  Laborers cannot just quit their fields.  That many did just this tells us that Jesus offered them hope for a better life, not merely free from the taxes the Romans or Herod demanded, but a life of spiritual peace and of a heavenly destiny.  

“When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them.”  Here again, we witness the Lord Jesus who looks into the hearts of people.  He sees what is there, that “they were like sheep without a shepherd”, awaiting the One who alone could lead them to safe and abundant pastures.  And, again, he offers his service: “He began to teach them many things.”  

When the Apostles saw the crowds, their hearts must have sunk, because their chance of a needed holiday was gone.  They saw their Master go right back to work as soon as he left the boat.  Maybe it was only years later that they understood what else they had seen: that for the servant of God, there is no real rest on this earth.  The servant of God continuously prays and worships, and is alert for opportunities to spread the Gospel.  This servant is never “off the clock” until the Lord tells him to come on home.  We do not see the Apostles grumbling, nor do we hear the Lord making excuses.  They pick up their burden of ministry and carry on.