Homily: 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B
Friends,
these last couple of weeks, we’ve been hearing a lot about prophets, centering
our reflections around their call to prophesy: the Old Testament prophets, like
Ezekiel and Amos, and the New Testament prophets (those we also call
Evangelists), the Apostles. This week we hear from another prophet, the
prophet Jeremiah, but our focus today is more on his message.
Jeremiah’s
message is a message of warning to the leaders of God’s people. He is
warning them because, instead of leading God’s people in right worship and
moral conduct, they had been leading them into worship of false gods and had allowed
moral depravity. This was terrible because the leaders of God’s people
were anointed to be more than just “governors”—meant to help maintain order in
civil life. Rather, they were shepherds—meant
to lead God’s people in the ways of right living and to keep them from falling
into sin.
Ultimately,
they were supposed to be shepherds who model God’s own shepherding. And
where do we find an image of God’s own shepherding? Today’s Psalm, Psalm 23, is a psalm of God’s
shepherding. Psalm 23 was written by King David, who was a shepherd
before he was made king. He shepherded
God’s people rightly (in spite of his numerous failings throughout the
years). In fact, God chose him to be the
shepherd-king of his people because (the Scriptures tell us) he was a “man
after God’s own heart”. King David, therefore,
understood God’s shepherding. He wrote
this psalm, which describes not only God’s shepherding, but also the goal of
his shepherding. It describes that the goal of God’s shepherding is to
shepherd his people to a place of rest: a place in which it is safe,
tranquil, and in which his people can flourish in abundance. In this, we
should hear an echo of the book of Genesis in which God rests after all
his labors and in Exodus in which he commands his people to observe the day of rest (that is, the Sabbath). We
should also hear an echo of the voice of Jesus who said, in criticism of the
Pharisees who made the Sabbath rest a thing of burden for God’s people: “the
Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” All in all, the
message of Psalm 23 is that God’s shepherding leads mankind to a place of perfect
rest.
Thus,
Jeremiah’s critique: the leaders of God’s people were not leading them to rest
and flourishing, but rather into greater labor and turmoil. God,
therefore, completely frustrated with the leaders of his people, says to these
leaders (and, thus, to his people): “I myself will gather them and
appoint a shepherd who will lead them into my rest.” The prophet tells us that this newly appointed
leader will be a “righteous shoot of David” (God’s true shepherd-king) who will
be a model of right worship and of moral conduct for God’s people. Through
his shepherding, peace—that is, shalom
(or rest)—would be restored to God’s
chosen people: a model of the eternal peace that God will usher in at the end
of time.
Perhaps, however, the people didn’t
expect that it would be God himself who would come as a descendant of King
David to shepherd his people. Nonetheless,
that is exactly what happened. In
today’s Gospel reading, we saw God Incarnate act as the true shepherd-king whom
he predicted would come.
In the
reading, we heard how the Apostles returned to Jesus after completing their
mission to proclaim the Gospel in various towns of Israel and Judah; and how
Jesus, seeing them tired from their labors, invites them away to rest a
while. As they go, however, the restless people, who have been longing
for a true shepherd, follow them. When
he sees them, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, was “moved with pity” for them, “for
they were like sheep without a shepherd”.
Jesus came to shepherd God’s people into rest—that is, into true shalom
(or peace)—and so he
cannot turn away from them in their restlessness. Here we see what Saint
Paul described in his letter to the Ephesians, which we heard in our second
reading: “He came and preached peace (that is, shalom) to those who were
far off and peace to those who were near…”
Friends,
Jesus is the Emmanuel—God with us—who has come to us to shepherd us into
God’s Sabbath—that is, his rest. This is important for us to
acknowledge today because, for more than half a century, we’ve allowed the
secular world to shepherd us: and it has shepherded us wrongly. Don’t
believe me? Look around. By my observation, people today are more
restless than ever: and I’m not talking just about being too busy; rather, I’m
talking about a loss of psychological, emotional, and spiritual stability.
And so,
what is the answer? Well, the answer is to return to Christ and to allow
him to shepherd us rightly into the rest—that is, the shalom (or peace)—that
he wants for us. To do this, we need to allow the Church, led by Christ’s
Vicar, the Pope, and the successors to the Apostles, the Bishops, to lead us.
For example, statistics have shown that couples who conform themselves to
the teachings of the Church regarding marriage and sexual intercourse have
happier and more stable marriages; and that children who come from homes in
which the faith is taught and practiced by both parents (fathers, especially)
lead more stable and fulfilling lives. This, of course, is no guarantee of
peace and stability—our human weaknesses always must be accounted for—but
social science testifies that allowing Christ to shepherd us by following the
Church’s teachings leads to greater psychological, emotional, and spiritual
peace: both for individuals and for families.
This,
of course, means that we need leaders in the Church who, like King David, are
men “after the heart of God”. Over the
last half-century, too many bishops and priests have been more like the leaders
who the prophet Jeremiah denounced than they have been like Christ, the Good
Shepherd, who leads his people into God’s rest.
Being a true shepherd in today’s world is difficult and so we must pray
for and encourage our bishops and priests, even as we seek them out and demand
that they care for us, as Christ cared for the people that followed him and his
apostles that day. Together—the
shepherds who strive to be conformed to the heart of Christ, the Good Shepherd,
and the flock who strives to be faithful to true teaching—we will be a shining
light of hope to the world that true peace (that is, shalom) may be found and
that it is found in Christ, our Savior.
Friends,
Christ is our Shepherd—Emmanuel, God with us—who has come to gather us:
those who have been far away and those who are near, so that he can lead us
into his rest. As we worship him here today in this Eucharist, let us
allow him to shepherd us anew in our daily lives so that the peace (or shalom)
that each of our hearts seek might be known; and that the world’s restlessness
might be transformed into the peace of God’s kingdom.
Given in Spanish at St. Paul Parish:
Marion, IN – July 17th, 2021
and St. Patrick Parish: Kokomo, IN – July
18th, 2021
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