Sheep and Shepherds

Saturday of the 4^th Week in Ordinary Time

1 Kings 3:4-13; Psalm 119:9-14; Mark 6:30-34

I don’t know about you, but when I’ve worked really hard for a long time and someone invites me to get some rest, I don’t imagine going somewhere and working; I imagine resting. In today’s gospel, the Apostles have just returned after being sent out by Jesus to preach and heal in his name. He then invites them to go off with him to a deserted place and rest a while. So, they head out. We don’t know where they’re going, but if I was one of them, I’d be picturing green, rolling hills, shade, a little food, and some water nearby. What I would not be picturing is what actually happened: That so-called “deserted place” packed with as many people as we just left behind, if not more, and me having to help deal with all of them. Is this the rest Jesus had in mind?

Yes, it is, and the degree to which I do not understand that is the degree to which I’m not seeing discipleship the way our Lord wants me to. But what is he looking for?

I think part of the answer lies in king Solomon. What was it about him that prompted God to invite him the way He never invited anyone: “Ask something of me and I will give it to you” (1 Kings 3:5)? Generosity, for one thing; this was the king who, acting as priest, sacrificed a thousand burnt offerings to God. Thankfulness, for another; Solomon was grateful to God for the great favor shown to David his father, and to himself. But perhaps above all, it was his humility; though king, Solomon knew that he was God’s servant first. This is what motivated him to ask for the understanding heart that would help him serve God’s people best.

We find another part of the answer in the selections from Psalm 119. What is Christ looking for in us? A teachable spirit; a person who not only wants to learn the word of God, but actually hungers to learn it; who, receiving it, treasures it; and is willing not only to speak it, but to go out and live it.

If we keep these gifts in mind, the rest that Jesus was thinking about comes more clearly into view. As the disciples left the boat, perhaps they were tempted to see what they did not want to see: A beautiful getaway ruined by a crowd of needy people. Perhaps that comes to our mind, too. But that is not the mind of Christ. To him, needy people aren’t an inconvenience, they’re sheep without a shepherd; they are his flock, and they are hungry. What else would he do but feed them? First, as Mark says, he did so with his word, by teaching them (Mark 6:34). Yet, as satisfying as that was, consider how he fed them next: After having them recline on the grass, he took five loaves and two fish, blessed, broke, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people. All ate their fill, yet a dozen baskets remained (Mark 6:35-44). Suddenly, this scene – green grass, people reclining, water nearby, Jesus teaching, and food overflowing – echoes the psalm of David: The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul… You prepare a table before me…You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows (Psalm 23:1-3a, 5). And it foresees the Mass: The altar of sacrifice, the table; we, anointed with oil at our baptism; fed by Christ in word and Sacrament; grace overflows.

What may have looked to us like a getaway ruined is in reality a perfect fulfillment of Scripture, a perfect foretaste of the Eucharist, and a perfect rest. We should ask ourselves where and how God is challenging us to see more deeply into what look a lot to us like inconveniences in our own lives.

This is how Christ wants us to see discipleship, for we are both sheep and shepherds. Let us pray that, as shepherds in imitation of him, we tend his lambs generously through the many works of mercy, and feed them always with Christ in word and Sacrament. And let us also pray that, as the sheep of his flock, our Lord will continue to cultivate within us the teachable spirit that hungers only for Him, that treasures every lesson He has to teach, that is fed by Him in word and Sacrament, and that becomes a better shepherd for being a better sheep.