Here is my homily that I gave this weekend at the Roman Catholic Church here in Rocky Mount.
2018 Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jer 23:1-6, Eph 2:13-18, Mk 6:30-34
The Bible is full of agricultural symbolism. We hear much about vines, vineyards, vinedresser, wheat, flocks, sheep, soils, trees, and many others like these. The main reason is that people saw these things every day and most people could easily understand the connection the scripture is making. Today Jesus himself uses one of these images and probable on of the most famous, that of a shepherd and his sheep. We are told in our Gospel, “As Jesus landed he saw a great throng, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” (Mark 6:34) Now before we can truly understand what is going on here, we must take a closer look at this word “shepherd”.
It is very interesting that the ancient use of the word “shepherd” was for a king or a deity, yes, the small “g” god. One who would guide and tend his flock or his kingdom. He was the one who was supposed to protect his people from harm and put them in the right direction. Now we can quickly see how this use could be transferred to someone who keeps and protects sheep. The shepherd would have a flock and lead them around the countryside keeping them safe from all that could injure them. He would lead them to water to drink and grass to eat. How then does this fit into the scene that we have in today’s Gospel? Jesus looks upon the vast numbers of people who are following him and he has compassion on them because they have no shepherd to guide them along the path of life. Jesus knows full well what happens to people when they have no one fit to guide them, they find other guides who may very well lead them along the wrong path and into dark places.
This is the very point that our first reading is making. Jeremiah written some 650 years before the time of Jesus, sees the problem of people following after a false shepherd, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” “You have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them… I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. (Jer 23:1-3) The Lord is saying that his flock has been led into sin and division. He is telling them that by following these wicked and false shepherds they are indeed living contrary to the plan that he has for them, against the very purpose that they have been created for. The Lord then gives them the great promise that this will not last forever, “I will bring you to myself and by communion with me, you will again be fruitful and multiply.” This is the very purpose of creation, a fruitful people in relationship with the living God.
It is from this promise and hope that our Lord’s compassion for his people flows. Jesus knows that people need a faithful guide to led them in life and when he sees people not leading a life with God as their center, he understands deep down the effects of that chosen life. The brokenness and hardships that flow from it. It is this kind of compassion that makes Jesus weep for Jerusalem and to ascend the Cross at Calvary. It is this same compassion that causes our Lord to grieve when we sin and chose a different shepherd other than him. That is the true problem with sin, not that we have broken a rule that the Church gives us, but that we have broken our relationship with our true shepherd. The one who guides us along the difficult paths that life in this world gives us. When we trust him, he is always leading us out of our present darkness, off of those rocky paths, to the beautiful grassland and flowing water where the Father and Spirit dwells.
Now we come to the centerpiece of Christianity, to the key question that we face each day as baptized Christians. Who do we listen to and follow as a shepherd? Do we listen to worldly shepherds or to Jesus? The one who, as the Gospel says, “opens his mouth to teach us many things” (Mark 6:34)? What do many of these other false shepherds try to tell us, “get the most out of life by pursuing all the sex, money, and power you can get. Yes, keep running the race (like the mouse going around and around the wheel), get more and more stuff, then and only then will you be happy! Bigger house, fancier cars, more clothes, all the gadgets money can buy, do this and your life will be complete.” Is this true? Will this lifestyle lead us to a fruitful and full life or to a dead life filled with shattered relationships and broken dreams? If this where true then Hollywood would be the happiest place on earth, but as we all know from many tragic stories on the news, this in not so. What if our shepherd turns out to be a politician, a government leader, a political party, do they become for us a faithful guide? What if we put all our trust in them, are our lives any better? Is society any better because of it? No probably not. Anyone or anything that we follow and trust other than Jesus Christ will lead us to the desert and not to the grassland. They will lead us away from God and our relationship with him, to further and further corruption and decay.
Young people have to be very careful about this also. Who are they listening to and following in life? Is it a bad friend who is going to make them more popular and therefore welcomed into the “in” crowed. Or are they guided and nurtured by their relationships with God and their parents. Are we as parents and grandparents taking the time to talk to them about prayer, reading the Bible, about spending time with Jesus, making him their true shepherd. Or are we to busy with our own lives and schedules. Parents put down the iPad, turn off the phone, the TV, and spend time in your child’s lives teaching them through word and example what it means to be a faithful disciple of Jesus, because if you do not someone else will. And that someone will take the time and lead them into the darkness of drugs, alcohol, and all kinds of immorality and wickedness. If you do not believe me just watch the news, talk to people who have gone through the situation. Think how different those lives might have been if someone different gave them direction. Took the time to tell them, not only by word but also by actions, about Jesus and his Gospel of salvation. Offered them a bit of love and hope, they too might now be on the fruitful plane of the true Shepherd, instead of alone in a dark cave.
The same is true in marriage. Are we as couples following Jesus and his words to us or the worlds? Have we turned a blind eye to his command to be “fruitful and multiply” because the world tells us that 1 or 2 kids is enough? They will tell you quickly, “You can’t really live the lifestyle you want to if you have to many kids.” By doing that we reject God from the center of our lives together. Many people do not want to hear it, but Jesus does not stop at the bedroom door, yes even if its locked, he comes on in. But when we say, “nope stop right there Jesus, stop right there Church, I do not want to hear the message, I will make my own choices, thank you very much.” By doing this, we reject his mercy and grace, when we slam the door on Jesus, we become as sheep with no shepherd, blind with no guide. And is there any wonder why divorce and distortions of marriage are so rampant today. All leading to confusion and disarray. What’s marriage? Who can get married? What is love? Even now, what is a man or a woman? Chaos always returns when there is now shepherd there to guide the sheep.
I could go on and on with many different examples, but I think everyone gets the point. Jesus and the Church that he founded are our true shepherd. It is only from the teachings of Jesus, and the abundant grace that flows from the Church, that we can live lives as God desires us to live. This is the whole point of the very famous Psalm 23, even though we always seem to hear it at funerals, it is very much about our present lives. It’s about our current relationship with God and other people. When we pray it, we are telling God, “yes Lord come into my life and guide me along the path you and you alone desire me to travel.” Listen to how the Psalm goes, “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:1-4) We are praying for comfort and hope in the here and now, not after death. God is going to guide us to the pastures and rolling waters of a faithful and fruitful life. That is what the water represents, life flowing, the full grown and thriving trees growing around the water. Birds and animals living around them. In other words, abundant life. When we ask God, he will lead us out of death, out of fear and darkness, into his great and awesome light. He will lead us from sin and its terrible effects, into grace, peace, and mercy.
The last verse of the Psalm ties together everything that we have talked about, “Your compassion and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for the length of days.” (23:8) Because of the great compassion of our faithful God and Lord, Jesus Christ, we always have hope. No matter how far we drift from him and follow after other shepherds, he always welcomes us back with open arms. As the father welcomed back the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), so God the Father does with each of us. And even more than that, Jesus is always pursuing us. When we go astray, he is prodding us with his staff at our hearts and souls to return to his fold. He desires us to be his full and faithful disciples. To grow and multiply in faith, hope, and love. Worshiping him and caring for our neighbors as well.
So, we each have to ask the question, “What shepherd am I currently following in my life? Just who is my guide? Is it Jesus? Or is it some other false shepherd? Do I want to just listen to the voice of Jesus when its convenient and fits my lifestyle, or am I truly challenged by his voice enough to change my direction in life?” Pray brothers and sisters, ask for the grace to let Jesus and him alone be your Lord, Guide, and Shepherd.
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