Come away and rest a while....

Gospel for 22nd July 2012 (Mark 6:30-34) The disciples return from their ‘sending out’ and tell all that they have done. They ‘rejoin Jesus’. They have been so busy that Jesus invites them away to a deserted place for some time out. This is the first important point in this passage – even though we are sent out in many different ways we must always come back to the source, stay connected with the message, give time for rest, reflection, prayer and those ‘deserted places’. Only when we do this can we serve the needs of others. Jesus takes pity on the crowd who were “like sheep without a shepherd”. They have no leadership or perhaps fruitless leadership and follow the disciples and Jesus desperate for some new direction. The crowd take a risk in following them. We should not be afraid to follow those paths that may be counter cultural: “The biggest mistake is to sometimes play things safe in this life and end up being moral failures” Dorothy Day. A very apt text this Sunday for those of us taking holidays and finding some deserted places of our own. Here's a few of mine - have a great summer!