Cycle B Ordinary Time Week 16 Sunday

Alone with Jesus

We Jesuits are required to go through the 30-Day Spiritual Exercises Retreat twice in our
Jesuit life—the first time in our novitiate years and the second when we go through tertianship.
And for the rest of our Jesuit life, we are asked to go on an 8-day retreat once every year.
Why waste too much time in prayer, people may wonder. Imagine the many things one could
have done rather than just sit still and be quiet for hours? This is perhaps why many choose to
catch up on work and house chores or perhaps even catch up on sleep rather than “waste” one
hour on a mass.
Today, Jesus insists and invites us to, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest
a while.” ( Mark 6:31a) This is an invitation that we need far more than we realize. And it’s an
invitation that many of us find hard to accept. Sayang and oras. However, our gospel today
reminds us that regular times of rest are essential to avoid burnout and discouragement. Jesus
himself sought a spiritual balance. Even in the face of great demands, He would go to a deserted
place by himself to pray. In today’s gospel, Jesus invites his followers to do the same. Why?

First, there is something very healing and revitalizing that comes from silence and moments
of solitude.  There is something about silence and solitude that enables us to get refocused.  So
often in life we are overwhelmed by busyness.  “Busyness” is often a way for the evil one to
wear us down and get us off track because it prevents us from hearing the gentle, clear and
refreshing voice of God.  Excessive action also prevents us to stay focused on our true mission
and thus get lost in the many distracting activities of life. Therefore, at the heart of Jesus’
invitation is a longing in His heart that we rest from those burdens which weigh us down
unnecessarily. 
Second, after having given ourselves to our work and we begin to reap the rewards of hard
work, we begin to think that all of this is due to our own efforts.
The apostles have just returned from their first attempts at teaching and expelling evil spirits,
and it is likely that their report to Jesus is an enthusiastic retelling of all the marvels they found
themselves able to do. And there is always that danger of becoming a bit too enamored to our
own abilities and capabilities. We get too focused on ourselves and what we can do and end up
forgetting God and others. This was perhaps the temptation that the bad shepherds in our first
reading fell for.
In today’s first reading, the Lord is angered by Israel’s leaders who have allowed the people
to be “scattered” and “driven away” into exile. And we see a glaring contrast between the lack of
care for the “flock” of these bad shepherds and loving care and concern of God, the Good
Shepherd, for his people as expressed in Psalm 23. The Good Shepherd leads the “flock” with
endless overflowing goodness and kindness to bountiful pasture, abundant food, rest from worry,
and accompaniment even in the most frightening times of their lives. In the gospel we see this
same tender care embodied in Jesus. He attends to the disciples’ need to be replenished after
their first missionary journey. At the same time he also attends to the needs of the vast crowd for
whom he has heartfelt compassion.
 This is the temptation: to credit everything to ourselves and forget that what we do is the
Lord’s mission and that we are able to carry out by the Lord’s grace. Thus, Jesus invites them to
a deserted place, the kind of place where he would customarily go apart to pray (Mark 1:35), the
place where one meets face-to-face both one’s temptations and the divine assistance (Mark
1:12-13). The deserted place will help them experience more deeply the care and concern of
the Good Shepherd who calls them into mission and who is the source of all that they are
able to do.

“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
The main reason for our need to “come away” and “rest” is that there are many things
in our lives that are not part of God’s will.  These are burdens we impose upon ourselves
unnecessarily.  These burdens, more than anything else, are what we need to rest from. is a way
of getting refocused and clearing out the clutter of life.  It’s a way of escaping from our impulses
and habits that draw us away from the joyful will of God.  Coming away, alone, with Jesus, is a
way to keep our gaze on Jesus, remembering that all that we do is a sharing in Christ’s mission
and that he is the one who provides the resources we need to make it happen. Coming away,
alone, with Jesus, guards us from the temptation of thinking too much of ourselves, and crediting
too much to ourselves.
So think about this invitation.  Think about it practically.  Jesus invites us to regularly join
Him in a quiet place to pray and get some rest. Can you find at least ten minutes today to go find
silence so as to rest in the arms of Our Lord?

Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will
give you rest.”
What deprives you of rest? Obsession with a dream, losing perspective, having idols in the place
of God
Whose mission is it anyway? Sa iyo ba?
Who makes it possible anyway? Ikaw ba?
Come and rest a while to re-discover that life is all about God, not me.

“Pausing for prayerful listening, even for a few minutes, brings everything that is important back
into focus.” 

“Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I
can give them the look of love which they crave.” – Pope Benedict XVI

“God’s purpose for my life is to increasingly grow in my personal knowledge of God as I follow
Him in a life of faith. And then to make Him known to others.” 
― Anne Graham Lotz, Fixing My Eyes on Jesus: Daily Moments in His Word