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Illustration: The Exhortation to the Apostles by James Tissot, (1836-1902)
Pope Francis’ Angelus Reflection for 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Saint Peter’s Square – Sunday, 21 July 2024
16th Sunday Gospel (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 the 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.
“Let us beware of the dictatorship of ‘doing’!
Dear brothers and sisters,
The Gospel of today’s liturgy (above) tells us that the apostles gather around Jesus after returning from their mission. They tell him what they have achieved.
He then says to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
But the people saw them going, and many could guess where and, when they get off the boat, Jesus found a crowd waiting for Him. He felt compassion for them, and he began to teach them at length.
So, on the one hand, there was an invitation to rest, and on the other, there was Jesus’ compassion for the crowd. It is very beautiful to pause to meditate on Jesus’ compassion.
These may seem like two incompatible things, but in fact they go together: rest and compassion.
Let us look more closely.
Jesus was concerned about the disciples’ fatigue.
Perhaps he is aware of a danger that can also affect our lives and our apostolate.
This danger can threaten us when, for example, our enthusiasm for carrying out our mission or our work, for carrying out the roles and tasks entrusted to us, leads us to fall victim to a kind of activism that is overly concerned with things to do and with results, and this is a bad thing.
We become overly concerned with things to be done, overly concerned with results.
Then we become agitated and lose sight of the essential.
We run the risk of exhausting our energies and becoming physically and mentally exhausted.
This is an important warning for our lives and for our society, which is often held captive by haste, but also for the Church and the pastoral ministry..
Brothers and sisters, let us beware of the dictatorship of ‘doing’!
And this can also happen out of necessity, within our families, for example when the father has to go out to work to earn a living, sacrificing the time he could have spent with the family.
Often, parents leave early in the morning when the children are still asleep and return late in the evening when the children are already in bed. This is a social injustice.
In families, fathers and mothers should have time to share with their children, to let love grow within the family and in order not to fall into the dictatorship of “doing”.
Let us think about what we can do to help people who are forced to live in this way.
At the same time, the rest proposed by Jesus is not an escape from the world. It is not a retreat into a merely personal well-being.
On the contrary, when he is confronted with people in distress, he feels compassion.
And so we learn from the Gospel that these two realities – rest and compassion – are linked.
Only if we learn to rest can we have compassion.
In fact, it is only possible to have a compassionate gaze that knows how to respond to the needs of others, if our heart is not consumed by the anxiety of “doing”.
We must know how to pause and receive the grace of God, in the silence of adoration.
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, we can ask ourselves: am I able to stop during my days?
Am I able to take a moment to be with myself and with the Lord, or am I always in a hurry to do things?
Can we find a kind of an “inner desert” in the midst of the noise and activity of each day?
May the Blessed Virgin help us to “rest in the Spirit” in the midst of all daily activities, and to be available to and compassionate towards others.
