black and white crowds
Greater affluence for some, and greater anxieties for most characterise our society.
Ordinary people must to work harder for longer hours in order in order to support their families. People are time-poor in a world where time ought to be more richly at our disposal.
This is the world in which priests are called to minister. Pope Francis urges them to go out to the margins of the Church (where people who are time-poor can’t help living) and as shepherds to smell like the sheep. If they do that wholeheartedly, of course, they will find themselves time-poor, too.
Mark’s Gospel (Mark 6: 30-34) discusses in homely terms many of the dilemmas that face us as human beings and as followers of Jesus. He explores being time-poor. The apostles have been sent out to preach and heal, and have come back exhilarated by the experience but also tired.
They find Jesus hard at work speaking about God’s promises to a crowd and overrun by people who want to talk and be healed. The apostles are drawn into his activity, and so are working overtime. So Jesus calls it a day, telling them to row him a little down the coast to a place where they can rest. But as soon as they arrive, they find that the crowd has come along the shore, wanting more. So much for their RDO. What should they do?
Their eyes and ours are on Jesus. What matters to him are the people. He has compassion on them because they are like sheep without a shepherd. He will be their shepherd. So the lesson for the disciples is that they, too, are to be with the people in this isolated place and to smell like the sheep. In this situation compassion will trump their desire for rest.
But Mark also reminds us that it was Jesus who took them to the deserted place in order to rest. He was no advocate of being time-poor. In fact the disciples were to find time for the people who needed them. But he knew that shepherds needed time out.
As in so many Gospel stories this one is about priorities, and his highest priority lay in compassionate relationships. To build such relationships you need to take time to notice the world around you and to attend to the voice of God in your own heart. He would have had little time for a society that forced people to slave at work in order to make massive profits for their employers.
The Gospel speaks to the need both to go out to accompany people who are disadvantaged and to take time to reflect and to develop our relationships. At the heart of all relationships lies compassion.