Good Shepherds needed

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Mark (6:30-34)

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 had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

Sermon

Today’s Gospel reading throws up some very interesting things to pray, meditate and think on. For example, Jesus clearly wanted his disciples to understand and appreciate the importance of retreat, solitude and rest as a key ingredient in living the Christian life. He also gave witness to his compassionate heart: his heart going out, so to speak, to the crowd who followed him because they were like sheep without a shepherd. However, in today’s reflection, we want to focus on one sentence which sheds much light on living out our faith today: ‘he began to teach them many things’ (v. 34). We are not given any more information than this by St Mark – simply that the practical outworking of his kindness and compassion was to teach them about many things.

Today Jesus still teaches us. Today Jesus still guides and leads us, and his compassion and kindness is mediated to us through the teaching office of the Church. Now we may not necessarily think like this and even operate like this, but this is the truth. Where do we find this teaching today? Well, your own bishop will teach and proclaim his message to the diocese and makes this known through his pastoral letter read out by his priests during the course of the liturgical year. Do you ever listen hard, take notes or print off a copy from your diocesan website? Well, the truth is, most of us don’t but maybe we should consider it because the bishop, by the gift of apostolic succession, links us right back to the first apostles in an unbroken chain.

We can also visit the Vatican’s website and download or get up on our screens the teaching of the present Pope. Or we can study the teachings of other Popes and, especially in our own time, that of Pope John Paul II who taught so comprehensively on a myriad of issues concerning living the Christian life today. We invite our readers to consider reading some of the key documents from Vatican II. Gaudium et spes, Lumen gentium, Dei verbum, for example, are pillars and foundation stones of our faith and their treasures are there for the taking.

‘Heavenly Father, we thank you that you lead and guide us today through the teaching of the Church. Please help us to be willing to learn from those you have appointed to teach and lead us, Amen.’