6 February 2027 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Syro-Malabar Rite · മലയാളം
“As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” Mark 6:34
Hebrews closes with an invitation and a blessing. The invitation: “Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” The old temple sacrifices are over; now our praise and our sharing become the offering. The blessing is one of the most beautiful in the New Testament: “Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will.”
In the Gospel the apostles return from their mission and tell Jesus everything. He says: “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” Jesus cares for tired workers. But the crowd runs ahead of them, and when Jesus sees them, “he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” Rest gives way to compassion. Today we honour St Paul Miki, a Japanese Jesuit, and his twenty-five companions, priests, brothers, catechists and lay people, among them young boys, who were crucified on a hill at Nagasaki on 5 February 1597. From his cross Paul Miki preached to the crowd and forgave his executioners. For more than two centuries Japanese Christians kept the faith in secret without priests, until missionaries returned in the nineteenth century and found them still praying. The Good Shepherd had not left his flock.
Theme: “He had compassion for them.”
Praise and sharing, rest with Jesus, and the compassion of the Good Shepherd seen in the martyrs of Nagasaki.
“Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High.” Psalm 50:14
“Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.” Hebrews 13:15
Apply: Begin and end each day with a short act of praise.
“He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.” Psalm 23:2–3
“He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” Mark 6:31
Apply: Keep Sunday as a day of rest with the Lord.
“I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD.” Ezekiel 34:15
“As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” Mark 6:34
Apply: Pray for persecuted Christians in Asia, through St Paul Miki.
Our praise and sharing are the sacrifice God desires.
The Good Shepherd gives rest and compassion; the martyrs show the cost of love.
Take-home resolution: Make Sunday a true day of rest and praise this week.
Dear friends, Hebrews says: through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name (Hebrews 13:15). And do not neglect to do good and to share what you have.
It blesses us: may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep… make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will (Hebrews 13:20–21).
In the Gospel Jesus tells his tired apostles: come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while (Mark 6:31). But seeing the crowd, he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd (Mark 6:34).
Today we honour St Paul Miki and his companions, crucified at Nagasaki in 1597. From the cross Paul Miki preached and forgave. Let us rest in the Good Shepherd and, like the martyrs, give our lives with compassion. Amen.
Children, St Paul Miki and his friends in Japan, even young boys, loved Jesus so much that they died on crosses, singing and forgiving. Let us pray for children everywhere who suffer for Jesus.
O God, strength of all the Saints, who through the Cross were pleased to call the Martyrs Saint Paul Miki and companions to life, grant, we pray, that by their intercession we may hold with courage even until death to the faith that we profess. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The shepherd joins today's readings. Hebrews closes with a blessing in the name of “the great shepherd of the sheep”. Mark sees a crowd “like sheep without a shepherd”, and Jesus, who had taken his tired apostles away to rest, gives up the rest and teaches them. Psalm 23, the shepherd psalm, is the response. In between, Hebrews tells Christians what sacrifice means in daily life, joined to Christ's one offering: praise, doing good and sharing what they have. St Paul Miki and his companions, on their crosses at Nagasaki, praised God and forgave.
Setting.
These are the last words of the letter before its short farewell. The author has argued that Christ's sacrifice ended the need for the animal sacrifices. What, then, do Christians offer in their daily lives, through him? The answer is here, and then comes the blessing. These offerings do not replace the Eucharist, in which his one sacrifice is made present (CCC 1366); they flow from it. Hebrews does not name its author, and the Church has received it among the letters linked with St Paul.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.” (13:15)
“Through him” is the key. We have nothing to offer apart from him. And the offering is “continual”, not only in church.
“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” (13:16)
Worship and charity are not two different departments. The same word, “sacrifice”, covers both.
“Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,” (13:20)
This is the only place where Hebrews speaks directly of Jesus' resurrection. Elsewhere it speaks of his being exalted to God's right hand. The words may echo Isaiah 63:11, where God brought up from the sea the shepherd of his flock, Moses. A greater one has now been brought up, from death.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism lists “sacrifice of praise”, citing Hebrews 13:15, among the names of the Eucharist (CCC 1330), and the Roman Canon uses the same words. “The blood of the eternal covenant” is heard at every Mass in the words over the chalice. The Second Vatican Council quotes v. 17 when it asks the laity to obey their pastors willingly, and to pray for them, so that they may do their work with joy (Lumen Gentium 37). The same passage asks pastors to recognize and promote the dignity of the laity.
Setting.
The Twelve come back from the mission on which they were sent at 6:7. Mark has told of John's death in the meantime, so they return into a darker world. This is the only certain place where Mark calls them “apostles”, because they have just done what the word means. The passage leads straight into the feeding of the five thousand (6:35–44), which the Lectionary does not read today.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” (6:31)
Jesus cares about tired people, including those who work for him. It is not selfish to rest. Anyone in ministry may take this verse as a command.
“Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.” (6:33)
No plan survives the people's hunger. It is rather touching: they run round the lake to be there when he lands.
“As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” (6:34)
Moses asked God for a leader so that Israel would not be “like sheep without a shepherd” (Numbers 27:17), and Ezekiel 34 promised that God himself would be their shepherd. Jesus does not show annoyance at losing his rest. And the first thing he gives is teaching, before any bread.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the Church is a sheepfold whose one and necessary door is Christ, and that her sheep are led and nourished by Christ himself, the Good Shepherd and Prince of shepherds, who gave his life for them (CCC 754; Lumen Gentium 6). Every pastor in the Church shares in that compassion, and every priest, catechist and parent learns from this passage both the need to rest and the readiness to give up rest for someone in need.
Jesus told them to rest, but then he did not let them. So which does he want?
Both. He wants his friends to rest, and the Church teaches that human life has a rhythm of work and rest (CCC 2184). The Gospel also shows what love does when a need arises that cannot wait. A person who never rests soon has nothing to give. A person who never gives up his rest has not learned from the Shepherd. Mark also shows Jesus going off alone to pray after this same day (6:46).
St Paul Miki, a Japanese Jesuit not yet ordained priest, was crucified on a hill at Nagasaki on 5 February 1597 with twenty-five companions: Jesuits, Franciscans and lay Japanese Christians, among them boys. An account of the time reports that he preached from the cross and forgave those who had condemned him. They were canonized in 1862. When missionaries returned to Japan in the nineteenth century, they found communities near Nagasaki who had kept the faith for over two hundred years without priests. They were sheep without a shepherd in one sense, and yet the great Shepherd had not left them. This is a good day to pray for the Church in Asia.