Deacon John
Jer 23-1-6
Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the LORD. Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who shepherd my people: 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. I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I have driven them and bring them back to their meadow; there they shall increase and multiply. I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear and tremble; and none shall be missing, says the LORD. Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David; as king he shall reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah shall be saved, Israel shall dwell in security. This is the name they give him: “The LORD our justice.”
Mark 6:30-34
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.
Homily July 19, 2015
A young priest was teaching the 23rd psalm to some CCD children. He told them that they were sheep who needed guidance.
Then the priest asked, "If you are the sheep then who is the shepherd?” (obviously meaning himself).
After a few seconds of silence a young boy said, "Jesus. Jesus is the Shepherd."
The young priest, obviously caught by surprise, said to the boy, "Well then, who am I?"
The boy frowned thoughtfully and then said, "I guess you must be a sheep dog."
What does the image of a shepherd tell us about God's care for us?
Shepherding was one of the oldest of callings in Israel, even before farming, they traveled from place to place, living in tents, and driving their flocks from one pasture to another.
Looking after sheep was no easy calling. Herds were often quite large, thousands or even tens of thousand of sheep.
The flocks spent a good part of the year in the open country. Watching over them required a great deal of attention and care.
Today’s readings explain how God, like a good shepherd, redeems His people and provides for them.
They also challenge us to use our God-given authority in the family, in the Church and in society, with fidelity and responsibility.
In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah, speaks out against Israel's careless leaders, because they have shown no concern for the poor.
He says to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 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.”
Jeremiah’s prophetic denunciation of faithless servants in the Old Testament is applicable also to our own time.
All of us exercise responsibility in various aspects of our lives, in the Church, in family life and in society,
We are called to imitate God’s diligent effective caring, by bringing people together, leading them and showing selfless concern for people rather than taking advantage of them.
The Old Testament often spoke of God as shepherd of his people. Our Psalm today, “The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.” In Psalm 100 “We are His people the flock he shepherds.”
In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus tells the parable of the “Lost Sheep.”
And in the Gospel of John, Jesus tells the Pharisees that he is the Good Shepherd who was willing to lay down his life for his sheep. (Matthew 18:12, Luke 15:4, John 10).
Our reading from the Gospel of Mark presents Jesus as the good shepherd fulfilling God’s promise given through his prophet Jeremiah in the first reading.
Jesus is tending to his weary apostles, who have just returned from their first preaching mission, while at the same time expressing his concern for the people who, like “sheep without a shepherd," have gathered to meet him in the wilderness.
We need God’s grace to become good shepherds: The Christian life is a continuous passage from the presence of God to the presence of people and back again.
Today, in the face of so many people in our culture who are lost, who don’t know the purpose of their lives,
who often go from one pleasure to the next searching for that one thing that gives them the joy and peace they feel is missing from their lives.
For those people who are indeed like sheep without a shepherd, the great act of compassion that the Lord wants from us is to teach them about Him.
But we cannot give what we don’t have.
In order for us to be able to give people the greatest gift we ever could give them, the gift of the Lord, we need to “have” the Lord, we need to know Him, we need to love Him, we need to radiate His love for us contagiously,
so that others will see us as sign posts pointing to Him who fills us with the joy and peace for which their hearts hunger.
For us to be capable of bringing Christ to others, we need first to bring ourselves to Him, to spend time with Him, to be fed by Him so that we can in turn feed others.
And we do that through prayer.
Prayer is essentially listening to God and talking to Him.
One of our main problems is that we do not truly allow God the opportunity to speak to us. We don’t know how to "be still and to listen."
We should allow God the opportunity to speak to us and recharge us with spiritual energy and strength, by setting aside enough time for Him to speak to us, and for us to speak to Him.
He speaks to us powerfully when we spend some time every day reading the Bible and meditating on the message God gives us.
We receive strength from God to do our share of the shepherd’s preaching ministry,
by praying to Him individually, in the family and as a community participating in the Eucharistic celebration.
The Church has the double responsibility of teaching and feeding: Teaching the Word of God is essential to a Christian community.
But we as Christians must also display the compassion of Jesus,
by meeting the social and material needs of others by our works of charity as individual Christians and as a parish community,
even to those who are not members of our Church.
At St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, at the very back of the basilica, there is one of the most famous pieces in art history, done by the great sculptor Bernini.
It’s called the “Altar of the Chair.”
Pope Alexander VII commissioned Bernini to build a monument which would give prominence to the ancient wooden chair believed to have been used by St. Peter.
Peter’s chair is a symbol of the teaching authority of the Church and particularly of the Popes, the successors of St. Peter.
But the element that is most relevant to today’s Scriptures is found sculpted into the backrest of the Chair.
It’s a depiction of Peter feeding Christ’s sheep. It’s a reference to the end of John’s Gospel, when Jesus asked Peter three times, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter replied that he did. And Jesus responded, “Feed my lambs,” “tend my sheep,” and “feed my sheep.”
Peter’s obedience in caring for Christ’s sheep is seen above all, therefore, in his TEACHING of Christ’s truth.
Peter called Jesus the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls (1 Peter 2:25).
In our battle against sin and evil, Jesus is ever ready to give us help, strength, and refuge. But do you trust in his grace and help at all times?
Do you know the peace and security of a life freely submitted to Jesus, the Good Shepherd?
From our reflection on today’s Gospel, let us remind ourselves that the Christian life consists of meeting with God in a deserted place so that we may serve people more effectively in the market place.
Amen