- This event has passed.
Vigils Reading – 16th Sunday
July 21
A KINDLY SAVIOR AND PHYSICIAN
From a commentary by Bede the Venerable1
◊◊◊
The apostles returned to Jesus and reported to him everything they had
done and taught. As well as reporting to him…they told him what had befallen
John the Baptist while they were teaching. And he said to them: Come away to
some place where you can be alone by yourselves and rest awhile.
The following words show what real need there was to give the disciples
some rest: For many were coming and going and they had no time even to eat.
The great happiness of those days can be seen from the hard work of those who
taught and the enthusiasm of those who learned. If only in our time such a
concourse of faithful listeners would again press round the ministers of the
word, not allowing them time to attend to their physical needs! For those denied
the time needed to look after their bodies will have still less opportunity to heed
the soul’s or the body’s temptations. Rather, people of whom the word of faith
and the saving ministry is demanded in season and out of season have an
incentive to meditate upon heavenly things so as not to contradict what they
teach by what they do.
And they got into the boat and went away by themselves to a deserted
spot. The disciples did not get into the boat alone, but took the Lord with them,
as the evangelist Matthew makes clear.
Many people saw them set out and recognized them, and from all the
towns they hastened to the place on foot and reached it before them. The fact
that people on foot are said to have reached the place first shows that the
disciples did not go with the Lord to the opposite bank of the Jordan, but
crossed some stream or inlet to reach a nearby spot in the same region, within
walking distance for the local people.
Thus when Jesus landed he saw a large crowd. He took pity on them
because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them
many things.
Matthew relates more fully how he took pity on them. He says: And he
took pity on them and cured their sick. This is what it means really to take pity
on the poor, and on those who have no one to guide them: to open the way of
truth to them by teaching, to heal their physical infirmities, and to make them
want to praise the divine generosity by feeding them when they are hungry as
Jesus did…
Jesus tested the crowd’s faith, and having done so he gave it a fitting
reward. He sought out a lonely place to see if they would take the trouble to
follow him. For their part, they showed how concerned they were for their
salvation by the effort they made in going along the deserted road not on
donkeys or in carts of various kinds, but on foot. In return Jesus welcomed those
weary, ignorant, sick and hungry people, instructing, healing, and feeding them
as a kindly savior and physician, and so letting them know how pleased he is by
believers’ devotion to him.
1 Journey with the Fathers – Year B – New City Press – 1999 – pg 100.3