Jesus said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” The Apostles had just returned from their mission and were talking about how successful their work was, but Jesus doesn’t tell them to get back out there and go again, He invites them to rest, to find some peace and quiet. He asks them to take a little retreat with Him.

You may not know this, but priests are required to go on retreat for at least five days every year.  Last year I went on retreat during the shutdown in May, hardly anybody even knew I was gone, it was perfect.

But this year I have felt so busy it has been difficult to set a date for retreat.  You know, just to find five days with nothing going on is a challenge, and ideally I would take an eight day retreat, which is much better, but that is even more difficult to find in my schedule.

I wonder if everyone feels that way this year.  Last summer, there was hardly anything to do, this summer it is like we are playing catch-up, there are tons of things to do and we are trying to do them all to make up for lost time.

But to be honest, I kind of miss that slower pace. I kind of miss the peace and quiet. I kind of miss the increased opportunities for prayer.  I miss the opportunity like Jesus gave to the Apostles to come and rest awhile.

Since those opportunities are not as readily accessible, really all that means though is I have to be more intentional about it. We have to be more intentional - it’s not just me as a priest - we all need to take the time, to make the time, for time with Jesus, because we are all called to be good shepherds.

Because when we are running around, always busy, it is difficult to find peace.  But we heard in that second reading, “He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.”

We have access to God through Jesus Christ, so we need to spend the time with Him, the Good Shepherd.  He is still preaching a message of peace to us today. He wants us to take time for Him every day, not just when we can break away for a week, that isn’t realistic for most people.

This is a nice thing about Mass, it’s a retreat from the world that we can count on every week.  It is a place where we encounter Jesus in the Eucharist.  It is a place where we can come from that far off place and draw near to Him to find peace and rest...

Right now, even though we could, I haven’t consistently added more extraordinary eucharistic ministers.  I feel it is an opportunity for prayer, to spend that time with Jesus before and after receiving Him into our bodies.

I was talking to a friend the other day and he was telling me about how he was at an outdoor Mass shortly after returning last summer, and there were a lot of people there but only one priest distributing and my friend was going to be one of the last ones to receive.  

And in that, he became really anxious about it because it wasn’t the norm, you know we are used to the go go go, get through the lines and get communion as quickly and as efficiently as possible, not thinking about what, or more accurately, Who we are about to receive. 

But then after he received Jesus he realized that this was a missed opportunity for him. He should have just been using that time to pray, to pray in anticipation and expectation of this encounter with Jesus.  So no matter whether you are first in line or last, it is an opportunity for a little retreat.

Mass is a place where we are fed by God, we are taught by Jesus, we hear His Word and we listen to the teachings of the priest, but did you know that if you go to Mass every Sunday, you still only hear 7% of the Bible? Yeah, really not that much, I doubt anybody would say they really knew a person well if they only knew 7% about them.

So another good way, I might even say a necessary way, is to spend time with Jesus every day is through scripture study, reading the bible. This is where we can really get to know Jesus and be taught by Him.  

We heard at the end of this Gospel passage that Jesus and the Apostles really weren’t able to go on this retreat after all, people kept coming to them, and Jesus “was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.”

Catholics are notoriously bad at reading scripture, but it doesn’t have to be like that, the bible is a lot more accessible than people think.  For anyone wanting to get started, take a bible, flip two-thirds of the way through to the start of the New Testament, and read through that, starting with the Gospel of Matthew and moving through the life and works of Jesus and His apostles.

This also is a retreat with Jesus, it allows Him to teach us, and when we pray with it, we get that retreat, we get a bit of alone time with Jesus that refreshes us and gives us the strength to get back to work for the Kingdom.

In conclusion, we need this time, this time of retreat with our Lord.  We heard in that first reading how there were many many bad shepherds.  Listen, if we don’t take this time with Jesus, we will turn out to be bad shepherds too, me as a shepherd for all of you, many of you as a shepherd for your families and flocks you care for. We need to learn from the Good Shepherd Himself.

Jesus loves us and wants to refresh us. It is up to us to accept His invitation, to pull back from the busyness and work of the world and make the space and time to learn from Him and truly enter into His peace and rest. Amen.