Jesus said to the Twelve: “You must come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest for a while.” …But people saw them going, and many could guess where…they all hurried to the place on foot and reached it before them…So as Jesus stepped ashore, he saw a large crowd and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Mark 6: 30-34
Today’s gospel-reading recounts another object-lesson in ministering which Jesus gave the Twelve. Fresh back from their very first experience of ministering to people, they were clearly excited to give him an account of their experience. Jesus, however, saw that they needed time and space to calm down and relax, so he suggested that they all go off to a secluded spot away from the crowds demanding their attention. But guessing correctly where they were headed, many went on ahead on foot and were there to meet them when they came ashore. Jesus immediately recognised their need and put it ahead of his plan to take the Twelve for a well-earned break.
Throughout the history of Israel, prophets had repeatedly levelled harsh criticism at Israel’s leaders for neglecting their responsibility as shepherds of their people. Confronted by the crowd anticipating his arrival, Jesus immediately recognised the people in front of him as victims of negligent leaders. Mark noted that, on seeing them, Jesus was “moved with pity for they were like sheep without a shepherd”. The Greek word that Mark used for pity can also be translated as compassion that wells up in the depths of one’s being. Mark was clearly stating that Jesus saw the people’s pain as his pain, so deeply did he resonate with the neglect that had been visited on them. So, he immediately turned his attention to making good their loss. Their hunger and thirst for spiritual nourishment were such that he wasted no time in launching into teaching them.
Mark used this initiative by Jesus to set the scene for what lay ahead (Mark6: 35-44) when he (Mark) would present Jesus as the source of nourishment for a crowd of thousands. (Mark 6: 35-44)
Mark has also used the way in which Jesus identified with the shepherd-less crowd to present Jesus to his own community as God’s Shepherd reaching out to them in their need.
There are multiple references throughout the First/Old Testament to God as shepherd to the people of Israel and God’s delegation of that role to anointed rulers and leaders. The very first reference to God as shepherd is to be found near the end of Genesis when the dying Israel, in blessing two of Joseph’s sons (Israel’s grandsons), described God as his own life-long shepherd (see Genesis 48: 15). When David was anointed as King of Israel, God also appointed him as “shepherd of Israel (see 2 Samuel 5: 2). The Book of Chronicles makes it clear that all the Judges were appointed as “shepherds of the people” (see 1 Chronicles 17: 6). The Prophet Ezekiel made repeated references to the leaders of Israel as shepherds and reprimanded them soundly for feeding themselves and neglecting to nourish their people, to whom he referred as their sheep (see Ezekiel 34: 1-7).
By describing how Jesus categorised the crowd in front of him as “sheep without a shepherd” and then stepped up to teach them at length, Mark was underlining the fact that Jesus was, in fact, giving the Twelve an object lesson in how they, too, were meant to be shepherds of their people, putting their people’s needs ahead of their own.
The Responsorial Psalm for today’s liturgy (Ps 22) reinforces the message that we, in our turn, as successors of the Twelve, have a serious responsibility to be shepherds to everyone we encounter, including those beside whom we sit during the liturgy.
There is one final aspect of today’s gospel-reading that demands our attention. It is the fact that Jesus, without hesitating, put on hold his plans for a break for the Twelve and himself. That very decision drove home to the Twelve the message that compassion has no timetable. People often come with their needs and their requests for assistance at the most unexpected times and in the most unexpected situations. Telling somebody looking for food for her starving family that the food bank is open only on Tuesdays from 9.00 am till 12.00 noon doesn’t sound much like Jesus.
Perhaps the most accurate summary of the meaning and intent of today’s gospel-reading is to be found in the opening paragraph of The Pastoral Constitution of the Church (the People of God - that’s us!) in the Modern World, issued by Pope Paul VI almost 59 years ago at the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council in December 1965. It reads:
“The joys and the hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor and afflicted, are the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts. For theirs is a community composed of women and men. United in Christ, they are led by the Holy Spirit in their journey to the Kingdom of God and they have welcomed the news of salvation which is meant for every human being. That is why this community realises that it is truly linked with humanity and its history by the deepest of bonds.”
Gaudium et Spes # 1
Only when we are shepherds to the core, will the joys, the hopes, the grief and the anguish of those around us become ours, too.