Reflection on the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mark 6:30-34

Earlier in this chapter of Mark’s Gospel Jesus sends out the Twelve, two by two, giving them authority over unclean spirits.  They were to wear the clothes they had on and to take no food or money.  Meanwhile, Jesus himself continues teaching the people and healing those who are sick.

This scene may have been a common one — an itinerant preacher and some disciples telling others what they believe, what they have discovered.  What is amazing, perhaps, is that we here in Kentucky, nearly halfway around the world, almost 2,000 years later, are thinking and talking about this particular itinerant preacher.

In the short section of the Gospel we just read, the Apostles have rejoined Jesus and are telling him what they have done and taught.  Jesus, still surrounded by many eager people, probably realizes that the Apostles would appreciate some time alone with him, to talk more about their experiences and to get some rest — and food. So they head off in a boat by themselves to a deserted place, which turns out not to be deserted.  The people figure out where Jesus is going, and they “hasten on foot” to the place where he will arrive.

Jesus has compassion for the people and begins to teach them many things.

In preparing this homily, I was reading that the term “compassion” is used of Jesus’ attitude toward human beings in at least eight Gospel references.  As we know, “compassion” comes from the Latin words that means “suffer with.”  Sometimes the translation is “have pity,” but there is something condescending about that expression.  “Suffer with” expresses solidarity with the other, a kind of identification with the one who is suffering.

In all the Gospels, it is clear that Jesus is compassionate in his very being.  He sees people who are suffering, and he does something about it.  I do not know, of course, what these people in Mark’s Gospel thought of Jesus — of who he was.  He must have carried something of the holy for them, something of God. They knew of prophets in their long tradition, people who spoke for God.

As Christianity developed, Jesus is revelatory of God.  For Christians, Jesus does what God would do.  In faith, we say that Jesus shows us God’s compassion. There are certainly other images of God in the Jewish-Christian Scriptures, but compassion is often the way we find Jesus imaging God.

As Christians we are called to do as Jesus did.  We are called to image God in ways that Jesus did. We experience compassion here at Loretto.  Nurses and nurse-aides certainly “suffer with” those they care for.  Many of us in the Community “suffer with” others in the Community.  Compassion comes across as kindness, as attentiveness, as generosity.  I think Jesus would fit right in here.

There is another kind of compassion that we in this century need to exercise: “suffering with” the Earth, compassion for Earth.  These days we are called to know the Earth as a living organism and to care for it as we care for one another.  We do this in the Farm and Land Committee, in Loretto Earth Network, in the actions to halt the natural gas liquids pipelines and in appreciating the beauty around us.

As we continue with Eucharist, celebrating ritual with the fruits of earth — bread and wine (except during COVID) — let us commit ourselves even more strongly to do as Jesus did in having compassion for those around us and for Earth.