In a week or two’s time, all over the country, schools will be winding down for
the summer holidays. No more school until September. Happy thoughts of
having a bit of fun, maybe not having to get up quite so early in the morning, a
chance to play football in the park, spend more time with friends and family,
read a good book or watch TV, and, of course, holiday plans. And for those
who have to go to work during that time, the roads won’t be quite so busy
either. No school run, and people will be leaving the country or going to the
coast for their holidays.
Even the apostles needed a rest. They were buzzing after all their work on
mission, eager to tell the Lord about all that had happened. But lots of activity
can’t be sustained forever: “You must come away to some lonely place all by
yourselves and rest for a while”. The demands on them were somewhat
ridiculous: “there were so many coming and going that the apostles had not
time even to eat”. I’ve had occasions when I’ve had to eat at unusual times, or
had to have my pudding later because I’ve run out of time and need to go to
visit someone, or maybe attend a meeting. There were occasions in my last
parish when dinner had to go cold because of a hospital call that suddenly came
in. But if we think we’re busy and in need of a rest, things were in some ways
no different in the time of Our Lord.
We all need a rest, and time to recover. Even plants growing close to the
equator have times when growth, and perhaps fruiting, slows down. Even
machines need time to be serviced, when production needs to stop so they can
be checked over, repaired, oiled and so on. But how do you guarantee your
time of rest? You can imagine the apostles on a warm day, getting into that
boat. Perhaps if it was a fairly small boat they could let their hands rest in the
cool water, and let it flow over their fingers as they travelled from one bank to
another. At last: freedom. No people around. Perhaps they might start to have
a bit of a laugh and a joke. “Do you remember the time when we went to that
village, whatever it’s name was, it began with ‘C’, and there was this man with
the goat, and you said to him...” And all the old stories are re-told again. But
then, whilst you’re enjoying yourselves, suddenly there is the sense the party
will soon be over. You’re getting closer to your destination, and you can see in
the distance a vast array of people. Your heart sinks. So much for a holiday.
Rather than putting the boat into reverse, which wouldn’t go down too well, the
Lord takes pity on the crowds and sets Himself “to teach them at some length”.
Not just to give them a quick five minutes and then send them all away.
Sometimes, our holiday plans can come to an unexpected end. When I was a
child, I remember there was a time we went as a family to Bournemouth, but on
this occasion we cut the holiday short. I’m not sure if this was the year from
which we have photos of me on the beach with my sister, and we’re both
wearing jumpers it was that cold. (That was in the days before climate
change.) But, yes, whatever the reason or combination of reasons, we came
back home early, much to the relief of our neighbours. Whilst we were away,
the house alarm had gone off, and being an old alarm it didn’t reset until you
switched it off with the key. It’s important to rest, but we can’t always be too
rigid with our plans.
Conversely, it’s no good becoming an addict to leisure time, with the result that
work and our responsibilities suffer. In the first reading, the Lord warns
neglectful shepherds who allow the flock to go wandering and have not taken
care of them. It can be easy for us to criticise others and accuse them of this;
sometimes though it can be a case of someone having so many different things
to do that certain tasks can’t be done to a proper standard because there isn’t
the time, or the money. With a change of government, it will be interesting to
see how the roles change between Labour and the Conservatives. I can
remember, following rail privatisation, one of the companies was asked on
local news why the track had been allowed to get into such a bad state of
repair. The spokesman replied that it had been neglected for decades; they had
only recently taken over.
So as you prepare to go away this summer, or maybe you might not go away
anywhere this time but just have a bit of downtime staying at home, don’t feel
guilty doing so; even the apostles and Our Lord had to rest.
Curious about exploring things further? If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk