By Father Timothy P. Schehr
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jeremiah 23:1-6; Ephesians 2:13-18; Mark 6:30-34

"And he began to teach them many things." This is the last line of Sunday's Gospel passage. A vast crowd surrounds Jesus. He is moved with pity for them and begins to teach them.

But what did He teach them? Mark does not give us any specifics. But we can make an educated guess from what we have heard Jesus talking about so far in this Gospel.

After Jesus calmed the waters of the sea, He asked His apostles why their faith was so weak. When Jairus was told that his daughter was dead and that it was of no use to bother the Teacher any more, Jesus told him to have faith. So it is very likely that faith is the central point of the many things Jesus tells the crowd in this Sunday's Gospel passage.

Jesus wants people to realize that they are not alone because God is with them to care for them and protect them. But to appreciate what God can do, people must begin to look beyond the limited resources of this world. For as long as they rely solely on the tangible things the world has to offer they will never tap the spiritual resources available to them through a right relationship with God.

The Gospel gives us a concrete image for this. God is the good shepherd looking after the needs of the flock. The sheep in the flock may not know where the pastures are, but the shepherd does. So he guides them along the way that leads to a place where they will be nourished.

In a similar way, the people may not know where to find the best resources for themselves, but Jesus does. So Jesus guides them along the way that leads to faith in God.

Once they have learned to rely on God, people will enjoy advantages previously unappreciated by them: freedom from the things of this world; true security; the promise of eternal life with God. These are the sort of advantages we find the apostles enjoying after Pentecost. We need only read the Acts of the Apostles to discover the transformation that took place within them.

But the apostles are not there yet. In this Gospel reading, they still appear to be preoccupied with their own agendas. For example, when they return from their first missionary journey, they report "all they had done and taught." In their enthusiasm, they overlook the fact that it was God who gave them the power to do the healing.

And after they return from their healing work, their primary concern appears to be getting away from people. They are concerned about having "no opportunity even to eat." And when the crowd keeps building up around them, they seek to escape from everyone by going off "in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.'

Or course, the people figure out where they are going and get there ahead of them. So they find a "vast crows" waiting for them on the other shore. The heart of Jesus "was moved with pity for them." We wonder what emotions were stirring in the hearts of the apostles. Not surprisingly, those apostles will ask Jesus to dismiss the crowd at the first opportunity.

(Father Schehr is a member of the faculty at the Athenaeum of Ohio in Cincinnati.)