With these words of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel today, his disciples and we hear the invitation of Jesus to make a change. In these months of summer, especially after the months of restrictions that are increasingly behind us, we hear words for which we long, an invitation for which we truly hunger.
The challenge at pivotal moments such as this one now is to listen carefully and discern thoughtfully. This hungry, this bored, this impatient, this frustrated can become anything from being silly to being careless, from acting impulsively to acting dangerously.
God speaking to Judah through the words of the prophet, Jeremiah, is addressing a people who are confused by and hurting under the rule of kings who have forgotten what it meant to be a king in the image of David. They are struggling to connect their worldly experience with the other-worldly promises of the God who has called them into existence and promises them a new day of favor. Their Shepherd will come. The dividing walls of human choices and experiences will fall.
The path ahead will not necessarily be as calm and worry-free as we would choose, but it is the path on which we encounter Christ. Easy or entertaining have their place and moment, but they cannot bear the full weight of who we are or who we are called to be. The Christ, the Shepherd who has come for us calls us aside, for moments of “vacation” we might say, in order to see us refreshed and restored. Our lives are worth the effort, and they were determined by him to be worthy of the life and sacrifice for which he came into the world – our world. Wherever these wonderful weeks lead you, search for his footsteps by which he would lead you. In the voices and words shared, search for the things he would say!
Fr. Tom