At that time, 30 the apostles met with Jesus and told him everything they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, "Come alone to a deserted place and rest a while.

 Mc 6,30-34. XVI Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 21, 2024.

Gospel At that time, 30 the apostles met with Jesus and told him everything they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, "Come alone to a deserted place and rest a while." There were, in fact, so many people arriving and leaving that they didn't even have time to eat. 32 So they went alone in a boat to a deserted and remote place. 33 Many saw them go and recognized that it was them. Leaving all the cities, they ran on foot, and arrived there before them. 34 When Jesus disembarked, he saw a large crowd and felt compassion, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things. — Word of Salvation. 1. The disciples return from their mission and are invited by Jesus to rest a little. The return of the disciples is marked by the enthusiastic nature of the mission. They realized the power of God working through them. Furthermore, they could now teach what they had learned from the Master. The verse highlights, in addition to the joyful return, Jesus' way of relating and training with his disciples: Jesus prepares them, listens to them and feeds them with God's dream of salvation and the need to be truly missionaries. With this, something else is revealed: Jesus' concern with the formation of a foundation chosen by himself and prepared to continue, in history, his saving mission. In other words, Jesus is forming the New Israel, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. 2. Daily missionary activity has many challenges. One of them is tiredness, caused by the need that people have to meet with God, with themselves and also to seek relief for their suffering. If you find someone or someone who can truly give you peace, meaning in life, correct guidance, understand and listen to you, you will never stop looking for them. This is what Mc shows in this text. The people make every possible effort not to move away from Jesus and his disciples, even though they are tired, looking for a deserted place to rest. Jesus and his disciples work hard to serve these people, seen by Jesus as sheep without a shepherd. 3. Israel's political and religious leaders did not give importance to the needs of the people, their interests and their future. They were false pastors, exploiters of the people, profiteers and dividers of society in need. In fact, the poor have always been marginalized, seen like the rest of the world. Jesus sees it differently and teaches his disciples to give preference to anyone who suffers contempt. In Jesus the prophecy of Jer 23,4-5 is being fulfilled: “I will raise up for them (the sheep, the people of God) new shepherds… I will give birth to a descendant of David”. Jesus, through His blood, will bring humanity closer together, build unity, give Israel and the pagans the condition to form a new people, but not a mixture, but A NEW PEOPLE, realized in the reality of each NEW MAN, born by faith and through baptism, forming one body, the Body of Christ, through the action of the Holy Spirit (cf. Eph 2:13-18). 4. The text also advises rest, which is important for restoring strength and for better reflecting on what has been done and what still needs to be done and how to do it. It is a way of reinvigorating and deepening personal and missionary reality. Rest has its foundation on the seventh day, the Lord's day. Deserved rest should not be confused with "resting from the mission", which must be tirelessly carried out with love, dedication and self-denial. In this case, the tiredness would be more in the mind, in the meaning and in the giving of oneself. Therein lies the risk of losing the sense of evangelization. Therefore, the heart and mind of the disciple must be completely involved with the cause of the Kingdom of God and with the deepest intimacy with Jesus, the Evangelizer of the Father.