7 February 2026 – Saturday of the 4th week in Ordinary Time
HOMILY
In the Gospel read two days ago, Jesus sent his disciples out two by two. He gave them authority over unclean spirits, that is, the power to heal. He did not command them to teach. Let us remember that this was at the very beginning of Jesus' public life and that He had barely begun to train His disciples. However, the disciples did much more than Jesus had asked them to do. Not only did they teach, but they also healed by anointing with oil and laying on of hands. These symbols, reminiscent of Davidic kingship, obviously gave the people hope for national restoration with the coming of a messiah king.
It is therefore not surprising that when the disciples returned and reported all that they had done and taught, Jesus showed no joy or congratulations. They had usurped a role that did not belong to them. It should be remembered that throughout the Gospel of Mark, the activity of teaching is strictly reserved for Jesus, who, moreover, only teaches the Jews.
Since they have awakened in the people the hope of a nationalist Messiah who will deliver them from their oppressor, it is not surprising that the crowd follows them. It is them that the crowd is seeking, not Jesus. Jesus must therefore free them from this false success and ambiguous beginning and bring them back to the desert to resume—or rather, to begin—their training. “Come aside to a deserted place and rest a while”, He tells them. The verb ‘Come’ is an allusion to their first calling (Come, follow me) and the call to rest is an allusion to Isaiah 14:3 (see especially the Greek text of the Septuagint) where the word “rest” refers to liberation from Babylonian slavery. The disciples still need to be freed from their outdated vision of the expected Messiah.
When, on the other side of the lake, Jesus finds the same crowd running after the disciples and their teaching, He is seized with pity because He sees them as sheep without a shepherd. And so He begins to teach them, which only He can do.
Perhaps we should read the current situation of the Church in those parts of the world where it was once strong and powerful and where it is now reduced to a ‘remnant’ in the light of this Gospel text. Perhaps Christians - including their pastors - have proclaimed themselves too much? Perhaps it is Jesus who is calling His whole Church into the desert, to train or retrain it Himself.
Meanwhile, Jesus remains full of mercy and tenderness for the crowds without shepherds, and He teaches them Himself in a thousand-and-one ways, speaking to the heart of every person of good will. Let us all listen to His teaching, listening to what He says to the heart, to each of our hearts.
Armand VEILLEUX