16th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri
Powell, OP
Our Lady of the Rosary, NOLA
Shepherds
all over the world must quake in their sandals when they hear
Jeremiah prophesy: “Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter
the flock of my pasture, says the Lord. . .against the shepherds who
shepherd my people [the Lord says]: You have scattered my sheep and
driven them away. You have not cared for them, but I will take care
to punish your evil deeds.” If these malicious sheep-herders don't
flinch in fear at this warning, they should! They have taken on not
only the hard work of keeping their sheep safe from the wolves, they
have placed themselves squarely in the sight of the sheep's owner who
watches his flock with an unblinking eye. What the Lord knows and the
shepherds should know is that the dangers of the wilderness come
closer when the flock is divided. One set of shepherd's eyes cannot
keep watch over a flock separated by hungry wolves. The lambs are the
first to die, but the killing rarely stops there. And so says the
Lord: “I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them so
that they need no longer fear and tremble; and none shall be
missing...” The Lord has done more than appoint responsible
shepherds for his flock; He has sent us the Good Shepherd who keeps
the flock together, creating in his own body one flock, one people.
Woe to the wolves who would divide his flock and woe to any of the
Lord's shepherds would let the wolves among his sheep!
Jesus,
the Good Shepherd, and his disciples are exhausted and hungry because
they have been preaching the Word and healing the sick for many days.
They retreat to a deserted place to grab a snack and catch a quick
nap. Leaving in a boat to find a moment's peace, they are astonished
to find that a vast crowd of clamoring souls waiting for them when
they arrive. Mark tells us that when Jesus sees the crowd “his
heart [is] moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without
a shepherd; and he [begins] to teach them many things.” Not yet
made one flock in Christ, the vast crowd is united however in
achieving a single purpose: they are in pursuit of the Truth — a
truth that binds and heals in the binding.
Hungry
for a Word of healing and compassion, those in the crowd are
relentless in chasing down Jesus and his disciples. They are sheep
without a shepherd. Men and women without protection, without a
teacher. They have been abandoned by their appointed shepherds who
rule them from the temple with the legal commentary and ritual
pettiness. They are misled and scattered by shepherds who attend to
nothing but their own power and prestige. No longer born or raised in
compassion, the people of the crowd seek after a better way, another
path to their Lord's affections. In the preaching and good works of
Jesus they see and hear a way to be one people again, living and
loving under the merciful eyes of their God. What they do not yet
understand is that the way of Christ they hope to follow will lead
them into a flock larger and more robust than any they have ever
imagined possible. This is just one of the many truths that Jesus has
to teach them.
Many
years after Jesus looks out over the vast crowd with compassion and
teaches them the way to salvation, Paul writes to the young church in
Ephesus, reminding them of their of spiritual history, calling to
mind again their fallen state before the coming of Christ. He writes,
“You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you once
lived...All of us once lived among them in the desires of our
flesh...and we were by nature children of wrath...Therefore, remember
that [you] were at that time without Christ, alienated from the
community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise,
without hope and without God in the world.” Dead in sin. Children
of wrath. Alienated from Israel. Strangers to the covenants. Without
hope. Without God. Without God in the world until the Word of God was
made flesh and dwelt among us as one of us. Having devastated the
Ephesian pride by retelling their mournful history without Christ,
Paul goes on to teach them one truth: “...through [his] flesh,
[Christ] abolish[ed] the law with its commandments and legal claims,
that he might create in himself one new person in place of the
two...” This new creation brings the Father's two children together
in peace—His chosen people and the people who choose Him: all of
Israel and the Gentile world. One person—one body, one soul made
whole again in Christ.
The
unity we enjoy as sheep in the Good Shepherd's flock binds us and
heals us in the binding. No longer outside the promises of the
covenant, we as a Body live and love with one heart and one soul,
burdened by nothing more than a lightened load carried under the
well-worn yoke of the Master Shepherd. And though our unity sometimes
creaks under the strain of theological and cultural differences, we
can look toward the ultimate fulfillment of our created purpose to be
Christs for the world and find a blueprint, a promise for what it
looks like to stand before the throne of God and sing His praises
with one voice, to worship in His glory as nation, a people, a
priesthood of prophets and kings. But if we live now dreaming only of
a perfected future, we fail to do the work of the apostles; we fail
to go out and teach everything that the Lord as taught us. Who will
hear the Word if no one speaks it? Who will speak the Word if no one
is sent.
We
are sent to speak the Word of reconciliation and peace to the world
to hear. Not words of passive forgetting or surrender, not words of
capitulation and withdrawal from conflict, but the Word of God Who
created us to love Him and one another. As brothers and sisters in
Christ we are both sheep and shepherds, leaders and the led. If we
will to be good shepherds, then we must will to be good sheep.
And as faithful leaders, we will listen eagerly to the warning
Jeremiah sends from the Lord: “Woe to the shepherds who mislead and
scatter the flock of my pasture...” The wolves circling the flock
are called by many names: Religious Indifference,* Racial Tribalism,
Terrorism, Relativism, Lawlessness, Scientism,** Collectivism, Slavery
to Desire, New Ageism, and many, many others. The immediate and most
effective means of confronting these wolves is the teaching of Christ
in his Church, the ancient and unbroken teaching of many true things.
We
are no longer a vast crowd clamoring after Jesus and his disciples
for healing in the truth. He has given us every truth we are capable
of hearing. Our task now is to grow in our hearing so that our
understanding may overflow in love, and by overflowing in love, draw
us closer and closer to the holiness we were made to enjoy.
* The idea that one religious is just as good/right as any another; the rejection of the unique revelation of Christ as Savior.
** Replaces religious faith with an uncritical faith in material science; e.g., the Church of Global Warming.
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