Saturday of week 4 in Ordinary Time
Hebrews 13:15-17,20-21
Through Christ, let us offer God an unending sacrifice of praise, a verbal sacrifice that is offered every time we acknowledge his name. Keep doing good works and sharing your resources, for these are sacrifices that please God.
Obey your leaders and do as they tell you, because they must give an account of the way they look after your souls; make this a joy for them to do, and not a grief – you yourselves would be the losers. I pray that the God of peace, who brought our Lord Jesus back from the dead to become the great Shepherd of the sheep by the blood that sealed an eternal covenant, may make you ready to do his will in any kind of good action; and turn us all into whatever is acceptable to himself through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever, Amen.
Psalm 22(23) The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.
Mark 6:30-34
The apostles rejoined Jesus and told him all they had done and taught. Then he said to them, ‘You must come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest for a while’; for there were so many coming and going that the apostles had no time even to eat. So they went off in a boat to a lonely place where they could be by themselves. But people saw them going, and many could guess where; and from every town they all hurried to the place on foot and reached it before them. So as he stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length.
Reflection:
In the Gospel the apostles return to Jesus, exhausted from their mission. His first response is not a task but an invitation: “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while” (v. 31). This mirrors the psalm’s image of the Good Shepherd who “makes me lie down in green pastures, leads me beside still waters, and restores my soul” (Ps 23:2-3).
However, the crowds disrupt this rest. Seeing them, Jesus is “moved with compassion, for they were like sheep without a shepherd” (v. 34). Instead of dismissing them, He begins teaching—because true rest is not just physical but spiritual. The Shepherd’s care is more than meeting bodily needs; it is about offering Himself as the source of life.
True rest is found not in the absence of need, but in the presence of the Shepherd.
The apostles thought they needed isolation, but Jesus reveals that real refreshment comes through relationship with Him. The crowds thought they needed food, but Jesus first gives them the nourishment of the Word. This challenges our modern obsession with self-care that often seeks escape rather than communion.
The Shepherd’s rest is not withdrawal but renewal in His presence. When we come to Him, exhausted, burdened, or searching, we find that what we truly need is not a break from mission but a deeper encounter with the One who sustains us.
Divine energy flows through us when we are in harmony with God, nature, and our own inner being. jesus teaches that true vitality is not just physical but spiritual—coming from a deep attunement with the Source of Life. This is why the church emphasizes meditation, breath control, and inner stillness as ways to draw upon the infinite energy of God, rather than being drained by worldly distractions.
Now, looking again at Mark 6:30-34 through this lens, we see that Jesus’ invitation to “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while” is a call to reconnect with the Source. True rest does not come from inactivity but from conscious attunement to the divine energy within. Energy does not simply come from food or physical rest, but from being spiritually aligned and inwardly awake.
Yet, when the crowds arrive, Jesus does not see them as another burden. Instead, He is moved with compassion and begins to teach (v. 34). Why? Because He is not running on mere physical energy—He is connected to an inexhaustible divine vitality. His mission is not depleting Him because He draws from the infinite Source.