I Want to Be Alone

One of the nice things about being a teacher is that you do get some good vacations.  Of course, you’re not paid for the summer.  Many people do not realize this.  That’s why so many teachers look for summer work.  But you also get Christmas vacation and the legendary Spring break.  Teaching is such a demanding job, you need those breaks.  Rest is as important as work.

Each year, during Spring break, my wife and I travel up the California coast to a place known as Big Sur.  Big Sur is not a town, per se.  It is a stretch of Highway One, just past San Simeon, leading up the coast to the town of Carmel.  It is beautiful there.  It is a place where the California redwoods touch the Pacific Ocean.  It was know by the Spanish as El Gran Pais del Sur—the big country of the south.  There, you can breathe the clean air and find solitude in the shadows of the lush forest that surrounds you.

Sometimes, my wife wants to go somewhere else, some place like Washington D.C., or some other more frenetic location.  But by the time Easter comes around, we need the escape.  We need to go somewhere we can recharge our batteries.  So there is never any doubt where we will go each year, no matter how much we may talk about going someplace else.  Sometimes you need to be alone.

This is just wise.  Sun Tzu said in The Art of War that the best general is the one who does not need to fight.  My kung fu teacher always taught me that when confronted with an opponent you cannot beat, you should run away, run away and get stronger.  It seems like good advice.  This is what Jesus suggested, too.  The Gospel According to Mark says:

The apostles gathered together with Jesus
and reported all they had done and taught.
He said to them,
“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
People were coming and going in great numbers,
and they had no opportunity even to eat.
So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.
People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.
They hastened there on foot from all the towns
and arrived at the place before them.

When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.

Much as happened in this sixth chapter.  Jesus has been rejected by his own community.  He has sent his followers off into the countryside to preach repentance, to call on people to change their way of thinking.  In the meantime, his cousin, John the Baptist, has been arrested and beheaded.  His followers return and tell him all they did and saw.  And they are tired.  So he suggests they go off by themselves to rest.

Imagine the stark contrast with John the Baptist.  John was extreme.  He lived his life in an extreme way, much as many of us do today.  He had an extreme diet, locusts and honey.  He wore wild animal skins.  He pointed his finger at the crowds that came to hear him speak and told them to change their lives.  He accused them.  Most of all, he accused King Herod of living with a harlot, having married his brother’s wife.  We can see where that got him.

Jesus, on the other hand, came out teaching a message of love and forgiveness.  He taught that the way to touch the divine was to reach out and touch one another, to share with others and give comfort.  Saint Paul said that he came to abolish “the law with its commandments and legal claims,
that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two, thus establishing peace.”  Jesus did not come to condemn us, but to point the way to another way of living, to a life of faith.

Jesus reminds us that it is important to get away, to be alone.  Nobody likes to be lonely, but it is important from time to time to be alone, alone with our thoughts.  Sometimes you need to recharge, to re-establish priorities.  It is easy to lose sight of what is really important in life.  We live in the world, but sometimes it’s easier to feel the presence of the divine when you are away from all the distractions of daily life.  These are the moments of quiet and stillness, moments when we sense the total self, with all our hopes and dreams, moments when we sense the adventure which lies before us, and have the courage to follow our dreams. Jesus invites his disciples to come aside with him into those creative moments of life.   This allows us to heal our wounds and become stronger and better able to go back and face the challenges we must overcome in our lives.  And, as in the story, he is there with us.

This is a very different Jesus than the one the evangelical ministers preach.  This Jesus is not pointing any fingers at us, telling us to give up our sinful lives.  This Jesus is not telling us what things we shouldn’t be doing.  For Jesus, the world is not so black and white.  This Jesus only tells us how to feel close to the divine presence that gives us peace.  This Jesus only shows us how to overcome our fears, by reaching out and loving creation and all that dwell in it.

No doubt, Jesus felt he needed to get away from the crowds.  He needed to get away from all the people who were following him around.  He needed to get away from a world that had killed his cousin, John.  He needed to hear about all his friends had seen and done.  He just wanted a little peace.  That’s all we all want, just a little peace.

Unlike wild John, Jesus does everything with a gentle spirit.  He heals.  He nourishes.  He is with us in the wilderness when we think we are alone.  And when we are alone, we can forget about rules and laws and rituals.  We can find the Holy Spirit within us.  We can establish peace.  Yes, sometimes it’s good to get away.