February 04, 2017
Saturday
4th Week in
Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Heb. 13:15-17. 20-21Gospel: Mk 6:30–34
The apostles returned and reported to Jesus all they had done and taught. Then he said to them, “Go off by yourselves to a remote place and have some rest.” For there were so many people coming and going that the apostles had no time even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a secluded area by themselves.
But people saw them leaving and many could guess where they were going. So, from all the towns they hurried there on foot, arriving ahead of them. As Jesus went ashore he saw a large crowd, and he had compassion on them for they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began a long teaching session with them.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
It was on my second year after ordination that I experienced being denied the sacrament of confession by an older priest after Holy Mass. I knew he didn’t recognize me as a priest because I was new in the ministry. Probably he didn’t want his routine disrupted, more so because it happened right after the Mass and was probably on his way to recite his breviary.
Reflecting on that experience I came to the scene of today’s Gospel where Jesus was on his way to pray but didn’t mind being interrupted by the people. Instead of driving them away, he began a long teaching session with them. We have individual passions which relax us when suffocated by our busy schedule. When Jesus claimed his well deserved break from his busy ministry, his passion was to go to a lonely place to pray to his heavenly Father. But his compassion was greater than his passion. When he saw the crowd He had compassion on them ‘for they were like sheep without a shepherd’ (Mark 6:33).
Our lives too can be so rigidly structured that there is no more allowance for diversions. These diversions happen to be, more often than not, the opportunities to do things God would like us to do at the present moment. Consider, for example the priest in the parable of the Good Samaritan. He was on his way to offer sacrifice to Yahweh at the Temple. In the light of Scripture passage suggesting that God desires mercy more than sacrifice, that priest couldn’t have betrayed his calling by helping a victim. “Let us not neglect these good works, for these are sacrifices pleasing to God” (Heb. 13:15-17).
The priest may have good reasons to deny me confession. Doing the routine of praying the breviary after Mass was one good reason. But people with rigidly structured life are the people the Lord loves to disturb when he needs a helping hand for his vineyard. –(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM.
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