Hi everyone.

Welcome back to our podcast, where we take a look at the gospel reading from today's Mass,

and we are going to provide an exegesis of the literal sense.

What did the original author try to convey to his original audience?

That's always the best way to start when we're trying to interpret the Gospels.

And that's the method the Catholic Church tells us that we need to use.

We always need to start with the literal sense of the text.

So today we're looking at Mark chapter 6, verse 30 to 34. That's the gospel reading you'll hear

today at Mass. The apostles rejoined Jesus and told him all they had done and taught.

Then he said to them, you must come away to some lonely place all by

yourselves and rest for a while, for there were so many coming and going that the apostles had

no time even to eat. So they went off in a boat to a lonely place where they could be by themselves.

But people saw them going and many could guess where,

and from every town they all hurried to the place on foot and reached it before them.

So as he stepped ashore he saw a large crowd and he took pity on them

because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length.

So this begins a new section in the Gospel of Mark, which a lot of scholars would say is about bread and nourishment, and we'll see that over the next couple of chapters.

That theme of bread and nourishment comes up a lot.

So verse 30, the apostles rejoin Jesus.

So if you remember what's happened just before this is Jesus has sent the apostles out two

by two to go and do mission and they're possibly away for a few weeks and now they come

back and report back to Jesus.

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