bg-image

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Woe to the shepherds

Jer. 23:1-6; Ps. 23:1-6; Eph. 2:13-18; Mk. 6:30-34

“Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says he Lord.”  We are all called to be shepherds within our flock be it our home, our schools, our church, our nation and our environment.  This week the readings began with a message of warning by Jesus from “I have come to bring not peace but the sword…Jesus began to reproach the towns…Woe to you Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!”  He ends the week with a message of hope and love “Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest…’I desire mercy not sacrifice” and then proclaims today that “he is our peace”.  Looking for peace in this world then it can only be found in Jesus. 

Jesus not only speaks to the heart of individuals but to complete “towns” that make the citizenry as a whole.  The greatest enemy to a nation, a religion, and a home is the one who rises from within the flock dressed as a shepherd in search of its own power, glory, and prestige.  Without a foundation built on the common good, freedom, and faith in a power greater than ourselves we call God, nations, churches, and homes crumble from within and woe to those shepherds.  Woe also to those communities who together separate God from his people to create cities and nations of secularism.  God desires us to build up the City of God within his kingdom and it begins now in our own homes and communities. 

Many are the shepherds in public office who in a time of crisis see an opportunity to mislead and scatter the flock with a mantra “never let a crisis go to waste”.  In their governance their voices rise trying to guide the world to a new world order, to “reimagine” a new normal where identity does not come from God but is a choice, where equality and tolerance is a normalization of behavior against the natural law of God, where the right to kill the unborn is justified as a choice, where only the law and legal claims established by the ruling class have a voice, and where “The Lord our justice” is silenced not to be heard of in the public square. 

Woe to the shepherds of these nations who raise up children with obedience to only their laws and demand all must submit to the new “Caesar” of the land against individual rights and liberties of religion.  Woe to them who by decree demand us to “reimagine social justice” as a world filled with “rights” that normalize sin and silence the righteousness of God.  Recall Jesus warning to Chorazin and Bethsaida can befall a nation when it turns to its own idolatry based on an ideology and abandons God breaking the first commandment. 

Woe to the shepherds within religions who mislead and scatter when they approve of same sex marriages, abuse minors, promote a God of prosperity while neglecting the poor and suffering as their coffers grow in riches, and weaponize religion preaching death to others while raising themselves above to be first.  These will be among the last for the ones who more is given more is demanded. 

Woe to the shepherds of the household after being blessed with children turn to abuse, neglect, and/or exploit these little ones and drive them away from having any faith.  “The Lord our justice” comes to rescue his sheep without a shepherd.  As a culture of death surrounds us, the home is the last stand in defense of God’s righteousness.  Parent’s responsibility does not end with providing safety, food and shelter.  It is the beginning of love to raise our children to know God, love God, and to serve God.  Faith development begins in the home and we gather together in Mass to celebrate as a community our faith. Our legacy to our children is our faith and their greatest inheritance is God himself to be their peace.

“The Lord is my shepherd there is nothing I shall want.”  The Lord has placed his law within our hearts and comes to us in the mystery of faith to reveal his presence when we turn to him, repent, and seek his path of righteousness.  The Lord created the heavens and the earth to be a paradise, he created humanity to be holy, sanctified by his love but because of our fallen nature he came down from heaven to redeem us by his cross and shepherd us back to a state of sanctity.  Now the choice is ours to receive the gift and remain in his grace or wander on our own path.  Apart from God there is no paradise, no sanctity, no salvation. 

The Lord has appointed shepherds for us as he promised in Jeremiah.  Together we form the one universal Catholic and Apostolic church under the vicar of Christ, the pope leading the magisterium of the church.    There is a comfort in knowing what the church teaches does not come from the interpretation of the next bible preaching minister no matter how well intentioned their heart is but from the long history of hermeneutics, that is the interpretation and understanding of scripture and tradition going back to the Apostolic Fathers and Doctors of the Church. 

The truth of the gospel is built on a solid foundation handed on and guarded by the Holy Spirit.  Good intentions do not necessarily translate to truth and even a half-truth is misleading capable of dividing and scattering the flock.  New movements of faith rise and fall like the passing wind born out of the mind of shepherds in search of a flock.  It is God himself who calls his shepherds to be united to his body the church in obedience to what has been handed down and “woe to the shepherds” who take out or put in other teachings. 

The Lord refreshes our souls with the light of a new day reminding us to remain in him who is our hope.  The pastures he gives us comes from the breaking of bread to celebrate at the banquet of the Lord fed by his body and blood, taught by his word, and comforted by the heavenly hosts of angels and saints and by his flock when we gather together in prayer and thanksgiving. 

He guides us in right paths through the dark moments of life.  The right path is a two-edge sword of love and sacrifice.  When we call upon the name of Jesus, we receive strength and courage in our moments of weakness to persevere in difficulty, overcome suffering, and wait upon the Lord in God’s time to reveal to us his glory.  God’s time is not measured in human understanding but in the understanding of salvation and God’s mercy. 

He spreads the table before us at the altar to receive the sacraments of salvation to guard us against the enemy and our cup overflows with truth, goodness, beauty and unity.  Heaven does wait for tomorrow when the kingdom of God is already before us.  We are invited every day to enter into his kingdom, taste and see the goodness of the Lord and be blessed. 

Goodness and kindness follow when we enter into the sanctuary of his sacred heart as he remains in us and we remain in him.  The world does not know this for it seeks to build its own kingdom of power, pleasure, and profit destined to rise and fall as history has proven over and over again.  The house of the Lord is eternal and when we enter into the sanctuary of the church we are in the connecting halls of heaven and earth where angels descend and ascend in worship of Jesus in the eucharist.  This is the house the Lord has built, blessed are we who enter into it. 

The church cannot be defeated from without but we must guard from within the sanctity of being “church” to the world.  This sanctity of life is in a state of deterioration and we must return to a state of grace recognizing the sacredness of God’s creation.  Nature and matter were created by God as a blessing and we are being reminded by Pope Francis of the sacredness of the environment in the encyclical “Laudato Si”.  He calls it the “care of our common home” and is concerned with the growing “throwaway culture”.  There is a need to respect not only nature but also the natural law created by God.  We need to recognize that it is not “all about us”.  God created the heavens and the earth and declared them “good” and his goodness must be respected in his creation.

The sanctity of life has also become lost in a “throwaway” culture from the unborn to the elderly, from the poor to the disabled.  The right to choose death over life is not only a grave sin but the loss of an opportunity for redemptive suffering for a greater good.  In redemptive suffering we offer our suffering to God who unites us to his suffering and transform it into a testimony of love, holiness and conversion of souls. 

The sacredness of natural law has been discarded for the scientific drive of genetic manipulation that can create more deadly diseases such as “gain-of-function” research to make deadly viruses even worse and spread pandemics that kill millions.  Once created there is no control of their capacity to mutate and survive.  They seek to spread in hosts from animals in our food chain to humans.  Natural law is sacred and must be respected or it will turn against us to our own demise. 

Even though we walk in the “dark valley” we are to fear no evil for God is at our side.  We have been anointed with the oil of salvation from our baptism and confirmation.  We have been given the church to provide us the sacraments of salvation and this is the Lord’s house from age to age.  When the dark valley invades our hope and spirit and we find ourselves in a mental state of depression there is a cliché that says, “leave your home and don’t come back until the depression has lifted” meaning we don’t isolate ourselves but we go forth seeking to do good and God will be with us. 

The first place to go is to church where God is waiting, where his table is set with his own sacrifice of love for us, where he knows every hair of our head and where peace is waiting for us to meet.  This is that place, this is God’s house and together we build up the city of God in our common home. Thanks be to God for the calling of the good shepherds who know how to tend to the flock, pastor and carry their sheep with the love of God. 

Tags
Shared this
Views

334 views


bg-image

1st Sunday of Advent Year

Jer. 33: 14-16; Ps. 25: 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 14; 1 Thes. 3:12 – 4:2; Lk. 21: 25-28; 34-36

Parousia, meaning the second coming of Christ to earth will happen swiftly bringing upon us a general judgment.  Wait aren’t we preparing for Christmas, the “Nativity pre-feast” of the birth of Jesus, why are we reading in Luke about the second coming of Jesus to start our Advent?  In the Latin Rite the Advent season covers the joyful remembrance of the Lord’s first coming in His Incarnation and anticipation of the second coming at the end of time.  Many disciples expected Jesus’ second coming in their lifetime however Luke sees a longer period in history to come and it is important to “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life”.  Simply put lets us not get complacent about our faith so concerned with our daily comforts or anxieties we lose sight of the “big picture” our purpose in salvation history. 

St. Paul in Thessalonians has the same concern in prayer for the faithful “to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones.  Amen”.    This Parousia covers the period after the birth of Jesus, the destruction of the temple, the period of time between until the full revelation of the kingdom at the second coming marking the end of time.  It is the fullness of time for the New Jerusalem. 

The New Jerusalem is now the city of God not as a land mass but a mass of people of faith in Jesus Christ.  It is marked by Jesus’ death, resurrection and outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  The city of God lies at all corners of the world in the temple of the people who receive the body of Christ in the Eucharist.  This city is now given a new name, “The LORD is our justice”.  It is the personal justice of God we are called to live daily proclaiming our faith as witnesses of holiness when we “increase and abound in love for one another and for all”.  For “one another” is for all believers and “for all” is for those of little or no faith.  Holiness makes no exceptions in love. 

Luke reminds us of Jesus teaching to his disciples that during this time between the first coming and second coming “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars and on earth nations will be in dismay”.  Every generation seems to live a period of persecution in their lifetime.  From the early church persecution after the destruction of the temple throughout history including all the world wars, to 9/11 and the uprising of Isis we see persecution of the faithful.  Yet we are not to confuse these signs as the second coming but remain “vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.” 

Our call is to conduct ourselves to please God at all times.  I was at a conference on mental health and substance misuse and the question posed was “why do youth after experiencing an overdose have no fear in returning to the drug use that almost cost them their life?”  In part the answer was that youth are very resilient and experience no immediate long term consequence from the overdose experience.  I find that to be true of overall humanity.  How often do we know misuse of anything including overindulgence in food is not healthy even if there is some immediate consequence like an upset stomach or indigestion not to mention the excess weight gain?  For some the attitude is “we have to die of something, why not enjoy it?”  Then the permanent symptoms start to manifest like diabetes, hypertension, or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and we begin to modify our behavior once we face the long-term damage. 

What about our basic values, are we living according to what we say we value?   We value honesty, integrity, responsibility, a strong work ethic among others yet how do we respond if honesty means admitting our fault, integrity means doing the right thing even if it is going to cost us more, responsibility means no excuses, and a strong work ethic means consistently doing our best regardless of the circumstances?  All of a sudden our actions and reaction finds justification for being less than the best God created us to be.  We lose sight of our call to conduct ourselves to please God at all times. 

Let us look at our moral values, the standard between good and evil.  We value fidelity in our relationships, justice vs. cheating in our negotiations, and giving respect to others regardless of race, ethnicity, or economic status.  From this comes thou shall not commit adultery, steal, and thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.  Commandments come from the basic human struggle between good and evil and the temptation to serve ourselves before others. 

Let us look at our Christian values, the standard God set with his people.  We value marriage vs. “living together”, we value obedience to God by denial of self, and we value a pattern of conduct after Jesus.  Jesus came into the world that we may have his witness to pattern our lives in his image.  There is a book titled,
The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis.  In it is a section of being “Eternally Minded”.  Being eternally minded is being Christ to the world. 

Thomas Kempis addresses the struggle between “human nature and grace” which “move in opposite directions unless you are spiritual in inwardly perceptive.”  He draws the contrast as human nature “deceives…always has selfish motives…But grace walks in simplicity and turns away from every appearance of evil.”  “Nature strives for its own advantage…Grace considers…what will benefit many people”. “Nature eagerly accepts honor and reverence.  Grace directs all honor and glory to God.”  “Nature fears shame and contempt.  Grace rejoices in humiliation for the name of Jesus.”  “Nature loves leisure and bodily rest.  Grace cannot be idle and gladly embraces hard work.”  This is our calling to follow the road less traveled of moral excellence. 

Scripture says in 2 Peter 1: 5-8 “Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.  If these are yours and increase in abundance, they will keep you from being idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  These are the graces in the imitation of Christ he is prepared to offer the soul who seeks to remain eternally minded.  These are the building blocks of a house that withstands the storms of life without fear.  This is the city that claims “The Lord is our justice.” 

In the struggle between good and evil there is a simple standard to follow.  It is “Do the next right thing”.  When in doubt do the next right thing.  When we find ourselves anxious about a major decision affecting the future do the next right thing today.  Trust in God and allow him to work for our greater good by doing the next right thing out of love for Him this moment.  It is easy to be deceived when we act with intent to control the outcome regardless of whether it is a right or wrong action.  That is the voice of the evil one.  Listen to the voice of God who is just and holy to guide our conduct in doing the next right thing that matters to him in our lives.  When we live according to our values we receive the joy we seek in Advent.  It is the joy that God is with us now, in his second coming, and eternally. 

Tags
Shared this
Views

641 views