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16th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B - 22/7/2018 - Gospel: Mk 6:30-34
Mirror
Every time we look into a mirror we see more than one image. The obvious one is of our own and the other is the hidden one. It  is the idol of our role model. It is reflected either on our hairstyle or make up or garments that we saw from our role model and modified it to be of our own. We do that simply because we like that person or we love their talents and would like to learn from that person. When the love for the idol comes from our heart we may imitate their way of life in our lives. Today's Gospel said when Jesus saw the large crowd, he took pity on them because there were like sheep without a shepherd. What Jesus meant was that the crowd had their leaders but their leaders showed no leadership. Jesus said elsewhere that

'I come to serve not to be served'. Mk 10,45

If the leaders are not serving their flock they are false leaders. True leaders often make tremendous impact on the behaviour and ethic of the people whom they served and cared for. At the time of Jesus the people had their community elders and the Scribes and high priest. The crowd used to listen to them and they led them but the people listened and loved their leaders no more causing by the poor level of leadership. They had distrust for their leaders caused by years of neglecting the duties of care and the people abandoned them. Instead of gathering their flock the religious leaders scattered them and let the flock wander aimlessly. Fortunately the flock found true leadership in Jesus and his disciples and they followed Jesus wherever he went. Jesus was not only fed them and cured their sickness but he showed true love and compassion and mercy. He looked after them and showed them the way who once claimed that

'I am the way the truth and life and those who follow me will have eternal life'.  Jn 14,6

Jesus stood amongst them and showed them compassion and tender love and they listened to him and loved and followed him.
Many people in our Church are presently experiencing the same problem as people at the time of Jesus had experienced- mistrust in leaders and turned a deaf ears to their calls and deserted the faith. Religious leaders at the time of Jesus had more than one prophet to learn from and that could cause confusion in their interpretation of the laws. Our Church leaders have only one supreme leader and that is Jesus Christ who is our head and we are parts of his body. We can have excuses and theories to explain for the poor Church attendance and people are leaving the faith at a high rate. People are deserting the Catholic faith and look for other kinds of spirituality. It tells us that that people are thirsting for faith but not the faith we offer. The question we need to ponder upon is how close our ministry mirrors the life Jesus Christ.

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