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.
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