“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
Rest is a genuine good. It is important to have an appropriate level of self-care if we want to be able to care for others. Yet when the crowds continued to follow after Jesus even to this deserted place he did not leave them a second time to insist on the rest he had planned.
Jesus wanted to reveal his own heart to his disciples so that when they encountered similar situations they would be able to respond in the same way. Yes, they should try to rest and recharge when they could. But there would be times when the sheep we so desperately in need of a shepherd that rest would have to wait.
When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
The shepherd is free to rest when the sheep are comfortably in his care. But when even one of the ninety-nine is missing there is work for the shepherd that takes priority. Otherwise, if the sheep are still "scattered" and "driven" away by a lack of care, they are at risk. Sheep apart from their shepherd are not smart or cunning creatures. They cannot escape from the predator or the poacher.
Jesus wanted his disciples to have a heart for his people committed enough that the crowd would not need to feel troubled or abandoned, to have a strong enough concern for them that they would not be scattered or driven away. Yes, they ought to rest when they could. But they were meant to be like Jesus who placed the well being of the sheep before his own, who freely laid down his life for his sheep.
Jesus wasn't trying to guilt his disciples into this frame of mind that privileged sheep care over self care. He wasn't trying to force them into it by obligation. Rather, he saw, and he wanted them to see the crowds with sympathy deep enough to make up even for lack of food and rest in the short term. He wanted his disciples hearts to be open to his people just as his own heart was open.
I myself will gather the remnant of my flock
from all the lands to which I have driven them
and bring them back to their meadow;
there they shall increase and multiply.
How did Jesus respond to the desires of the crowd? How did he respond to their distress and desire?
and he began to teach them many things.
Sheep did not need, and could not use, an academic solution. Jesus did not simply present a step-by-step process on how to be a good, isolated, individual sheep. Rather his teaching was a teaching that had the power of a shepherd within it. It had the power to guide the sheep away from danger. It was the shepherd's voice speaking, which the sheep could hear, and draw and remain near it on the meadows of the Church.
I myself will gather the remnant of my flock
from all the lands to which I have driven them
and bring them back to their meadow;
there they shall increase and multiply.
The teaching of the Good Shepherd allows us to remain in a union with him that is active and dynamic, responsive to the changing situations in which we find ourselves, allowing us to be led into new and more fruitful pastures. But his teaching does not unite us to him alone. It also powerfully overcomes the barriers between sheep, allowing a vast diversity to exist in one flock. His purpose is to unite in himself every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.
For he is our peace, he who made both one
and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh,
abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims,
that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two,
thus establishing peace
There are two aspects of this theme against which we can measure ourselves. How do we privilege the care of those sheep entrusted to us, in whatever way? There are different ways in which we shepherd our children, our friends, our co-workers, and acquaintances. But God wants us to have a heart for all of them that is compassionate enough to motivate us to give of ourselves for their sake. If we do not have this heart we can ask Jesus to help us see in the crowd what he saw, the same thing that moved his own heart.
The second aspect we should consider is how we allow the teaching voice of Jesus to shepherd us, when we encounter it in our own prayer, through others, and especially in the Magisterium. Are we docile enough to let this voice lead us? If so, we will find ourselves venturing to pastures where we would perhaps never have gone. We will find ourselves uniting with others with whom we would have had almost nothing in common in a natural sense.
Our Shepherd and King is still present among his people, teaching and guiding us, ruling over us in his abundant compassion so that together, as one flock with one shepherd (see John 10:16), we may be united around the banquet of his table, there to dwell and flourish forever more.
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