Msgr. Michael Woster
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
The 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 21, 2024

This Gospel passage today in Mark follows upon a few verses earlier where we learn that Jesus sent out his disciples, two by two, to share his teaching in the surrounding towns and villages where our Lord was teaching. The disciples came back from the early foray into the ministry of Jesus which — they proclaimed the Gospel, they expelled demons, and they anointed with oil in the name of the Lord, and healed many who were sick. They had a lot of stories to tell, and they were are very excited. But they were also exhausted from the work which they had done.

Our Lord wisely invites them to go with him to a deserted and quiet place where they could rest with him and renew themselves in his presence. The Scripture says there were so many people with so many needs that the disciples hardly had time to eat.

These verses remind me of our seminary training, especially the area of formation that we call apostolic work, or apostolic ministry. The rector of our seminaries, after we had had some months of formation, began to send us out to nursing homes, to hospitals, to parishes, and to the Catholic schools that we might practice teaching, evangelizing, and leading prayer in a host of settings and ministerial environments. Like it was for the early disciples, this was always exciting work for a young seminarians as we began to practice what we were learning, but it was also very exhausting especially since this work was in addition to the daily rigorous academic studies. Like Jesus, our rector and seminary formators, when we came back, would always lead us to moments of quiet reflection, and rest, and meditation on everything that had taken place in a given week to ensure that we remained rooted in Christ who, after all, was the source and reason for everything that we were doing.

However, I think this Gospel invitation from our Lord about rest is not meant for seminarians and priests only. It’s meant for all of us who often become overwhelmed and exhausted from the labor and responsibilities of our vocations and our careers. We need to come aside with Jesus to rest and be renewed by him in his grace and love. Doing this can be challenging because you and I both know that there’s so many things that compete for our time. It’s probably much easier for the retired folks and senior citizens, probably some of whom are listening today. It might be a little easier for them, but I think they even would recognize as I do, even with more time in our lives, it’s so easy to get distracted in prayer and spiritual reading takes a back seat to so many things. But especially for our working folks or stay at home with parents, finding time to pray and reflect and rest with the Lord can be quite challenging.

One of the things I love to do during my retired years as a priest, and as you know we never really fully retire, and that is spiritual direction. I have more time to do that and I love that kind of work. To give spiritual counsel to people as they strive to grow closer to Christ. I learn so much from them, probably more than they learn from me. One of my directees has learned that the only way she can find time to rest in the Lord is to sacrifice some sleep time in the morning and rise before the family is up to pray and do a little spiritual reading before her busy day begins. Another person I know does an early morning bit with his spouse before the kids are out of bed. Another person I counsel finds that the best time to rest and do prayer and spiritual reading is at night after the children have gone to bed.

Whatever the solution, each person has to find the time that works for them in a practical way. Those that work to establish this discipline tell me that the sacrifice of a little bit of sleep, or some time during the day, renews them in ways that they did not expect once they developed the habit to do so.

My dear people, not just your seminarians, not just your priests, we are called to witness to Christ in our families, our workplaces, in our church, and in our world. This means that we are called to come away each week, and even each day, to be renewed by him for the work and labor that we do.

I have a very simple, a good and simple prayer as a takeaway for this week. It goes something like this: Slow me down, Lord. Slow me down. Help me find time to rest with you and discover the joy and the power of your love and your grace.