Today's Gospel

The Solution to Burn-Out

Hi, I'm Matthew Kelly and welcome back to Radical and Relevant. We take a few minutes each day to reflect on the gospel, the life and the teachings of Jesus Christ. We look for the wisdom that He wants to share with us today. Maybe some things we read, we don't understand, that's okay. That's not the exercise today. The exercise today is to listen for the word, the phrase, the idea that the Holy Spirit uses to capture your imagination to link your life today with the gospel. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Mark chapter 6 verses 30 through 34. The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while. For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a lonely place by themselves." Now many saw them going and knew them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. As he landed, he saw a great throng and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.

What jumps out at you today? Two things, I think, for me-- maybe it's the same thing, but the first thing that we read is, Jesus says to the disciples, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while." So, there's great care and concern that Jesus has for His disciples. Now, Jesus is in the thick of it. He's the one getting pulled in a thousand different directions. And yet he has this care and concern for his disciples. And he's like, "Guys, you're getting stressed out. You're getting burned out. Come away to a lonely place and rest for a while." And so, there's a beautiful humanity to that. And then when Jesus gets to where he's going and there's this huge crowd, what does it say? It says he had compassion on them. He was filled with this great compassion for the crowd. Again, this beautiful humanity. I mean, we're talking about God here, and he's concerned about the people. He looks at them like sheep without a shepherd. What is he saying? Wow, these people look lost. Sheep without a shepherd. Obviously, that's a criticism to their religious leaders because if they're lost, if they're sheep without a shepherd, their leaders are not leading them well. And so, Jesus has this incredible care and concern for people. And he has this incredible care and concern for you. And what is it that he's directing his care and concern for in your life today? And are you open to receiving his care and concern? And if he says to you, "You'll come away to a lonely place for a while." Will you listen to him? Will you help him in his care and concern for you? Will you collaborate with him?

Have a great day. And remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.