SIXTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
Gospel: Mark 6:30-34
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio
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In the Gospel this Sunday, the disciples return from their mission and Jesus calls them away to a place of solitude. Don Fabio sees these two movements - mission in the world and solitude with Christ away from the world - as inseparable elements of the Christian life. Unless we spend time alone with Christ, learning of his compassion at first hand, we will never be ready for our mission in the world, which involves bringing the compassion of Christ to others.

Recounting our story in the presence of Christ is of fundamental importance for the integrity of our mission

The disciples return to Jesus after their missionary activity and they gather around him. There is an important message here. Missionary activity is not something that takes up so much of our time that it leaves us with no opportunity to gather around Jesus. As a beautiful prayer of the church says: "Every action of ours has You as its origin, and You as its fulfilment". The Lord gives us our mission and we, at regular intervals, must return to him. What is described in this week's Gospel is something that should happen to us everyday. We must carry out our mission and we must return to Jesus, recounting everything that has happened to us in our efforts to be true to our mission. Why is this so important? Evidently it is not because Jesus does not already know what we have done. The reason, rather, is that it is only in the recounting of my story in the presence of Christ that my story is truly revealed for what it is. Only in that moment do I understand exactly what I have lived and take full possession of it. The art of storytelling is intrinsic to the faith, because life is all about communication. The ability to communicate something requires the ability to understand the truth of something, and the communication of that truth puts us into relationship with others. Faith and scripture are all tied to storytelling. Each of us has an inner life that is unintelligible to others unless we make a gift of it to others by talking to them. To enter into a Christian relationship with others, there has to be a moment when we share our inner experiences. In this week's Gospel the disciples share their experiences with the Lord. To have a fraternal relationship with others it is necessary to share our experiences, no longer shoring them up inside. Someone who talks only to himself risks losing sight of what is genuinely important in life.

In family life, similarly, communication of our interior life is essential for good relationships

Similarly, in a family it is essential that the various members communicate with each other on an authentic level. The home is not a place where people merely look at television, or download information that is external to them and irrelevant to what is really happening in their lives. The home, instead, should be a place where people look each other in the face, share with each other, and communicate. In the workplace too it is fundamental that people communicate and share with each other. Workplaces become dysfunctional when there is a lack of unity and understanding between the members of the workforce.

To be ready for missionary activity in the world, I need to spend time away from the world in the presence of the Lord

The Lord Jesus was aware of this fact and he encouraged the disciples to practice the art of recounting and listening. To this end he suggested going to a deserted place where they could be alone. In last week's Gospel, we read about the disciples' missionary activity to the world. This week we hear about the necessity of being apart from the world and being alone with God, albeit in fraternal circumstances These two movements are fundamental to the life of the church and one cannot survive without the other. If we do not have possession of an inner solitude with Christ, then we have nothing to offer when we go out to others. We have an absolute need to be recharged in this way! We only have to consider the enormous amount of time Mother Teresa of Calcutta spent in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. If I want to be a person of God then I need to spend much time in prayer. If I have a lot of engagements with the public, then I need to spend a similar amount of time in solitude with God. Otherwise I run the risk of not being properly prepared for encounter with the public, of not being sufficiently grounded in Christ to be able to engage with the public in a fruitful manner.

The Christian life must have an equilibrium between activity among others and solitude/renewal with Christ

In the Gospel passage we are considering this Sunday, Jesus draws attention to the need of grounding one's life and mission in the fraternal encounter with God. This is not something secondary but is of fundamental importance. We are Christians and one of the pillars of our marvellous faith is the incarnation; the union of the divine and the human in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus assumes our flesh, and the flesh is not an accidental vehicle of the spirit as is believed by some eastern religions. Flesh for the Christian is not something from which we should be liberated. In the resurrection of the body we shall be reunited with our glorified bodies in heaven. But the limits imposed by our bodies are the limits of our mission. The day is not made up of thirty two hours, but twenty four. If one wishes to be in a position to help others then one must get sufficient sleep and be in a condition to be physically able to do what needs to be done. This is not to advocate the sort of obsession with physical wellbeing that is the hallmark of so many so-called spiritual movements today. The point is that there must be equilibrium in our lives, and this requires rest in the Lord. It is not just physical rest and renewal that we regularly need, but substantial spiritual renewal. This involves the ability to say no to those who at times harangue us for our services. A Christian is not a piece of merchandise that can be exploited by whoever has need. The Christian is first and foremost obedient to God and must abide by the stops that God places on him. In order to be truly capable of compassion, one must first be able to perceive the compassion of Christ. We must place ourselves before him and be still, resisting the temptation to consider ourselves omnipotent, fighting the demon within us that strives for efficiency, combating the fussiness and hurry that is incompatible with the wisdom of God.  We must stop so that we will be able to start again. We must be regenerated by the compassion of Christ so that we can be generously compassionate with others. If we do not then we risk falling into serious error. When we go to help others we will, in the end, only be looking after ourselves, being dictated to by the inclinations of our own ego. The ego is inevitably there, and we must not forget that. That is why we need someone to die on the cross for us and to bring us to the resurrection. We need to be saved, redeemed, and freed. For this reason, the "places of liberation" with Christ are fundamental. It is essential to be aware of the places where we can be alone with Christ and be renewed. Once we find such places then we must defend them robustly, because they are the fountains of genuine Christian action.