Our first reading from the book of the prophet Jeremiah refers to the people of Israel who were suffering from a lack of leadership through corrupt or negligent rulers who were supposed to be their shepherds but ruled them cruelly and harshly. So, the flock were scattered, so to speak to become the prey of all the wild animals. No one searches for them and no one looks for them… a sad state of affairs.
We hear the promise of the prophet Jeremiah that the God of Israel will raise up shepherds for those who need them and will raise up One who will save Israel and lead with wisdom… referring to Jesus – the Good Shepherd and referring to us – His followers, who claim to be Christians… called also to be good shepherds of God’s people.
A shepherd is someone who guides, who takes care and who gathers together.
Think of the people who have guided you and cared for you? If someone comes to mind, take a moment today to give thanks for them… pray for them. They were good shepherds for you.
Equally, are there are people you know who are in search of guidance and direction? If so, remember them; maybe include them in your personal intention for this mass; and pray for their well-being.
The first reading and our Gospel reading call us to reflect on what it means to be a shepherd… a good shepherd.
From our Gospel reading, the disciples had been sent out to the towns and villages, to preach about the Kingdom of God. And when they returned from their mission, Jesus gathered them and told them to come away and rest awhile. However, the people saw them going, and they all hurried to the place on foot, reaching it first before Jesus and his disciples.
Jesus was moved with pity for they were like sheep without a shepherd.
The word “pity” actually fails to capture the intensity of Jesus’ emotion as the word used in the Greek and Hebrew text… Something is lost in the translation to English.
The Greek word used is a very forceful term to signify an expression of the total personality at the deepest level. It actually refers to an emotion that moves a person to the very depths of his or her being….the seat of the deepest emotions. … it was not an ordinary pity or compassion that Jesus felt.
The Hebrew equivalent word expresses a deep and tender feeling of compassion, like the feeling we have when we see our loved ones in sickness or suffering; when we see our dear ones suffering or those who need our help.
That is how Christ responds to us, and He bids each one of us to, ‘Go and do likewise.’” As disciples of Jesus we are called to be as compassionate as Jesus is compassionate, and that is a constant challenge for all of us… because there’s always this tendency or temptation for us to stand aloof … even indifferent… and we tend to think: “That is not my concern. It’s other people’s job. There are other people who will take care of the person in need or of the situation.”
Jesus is moved to the very depths of his being because the people were like sheep without a shepherd… they do not know where to turn or whom to turn to.
Jesus knows, deep in his own heart, what a terrible thing - to feel the loneliness and not having any direction or any center to your life and to be lost. And Jesus reaches out to that…
As Christians, baptized in Christ, we are all called to share in the mission of Christ – we are all called to be good shepherds also – and to proclaim the Good News of God’s love, grace and mercy – not only in words but by very lives… in our every day ordinary lives.
When we share the love of God with others – at times we have to lay aside our plans because there is something more important - and that is people in need, people in need of being reached out to, accepted, cared for.
As we heard in the Gospel reading - when they got to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw the people and therefore He and His disciples have to lay aside their plans to rest a while, because something more important was there, and that is - people in need, people in need of being reached out to, accepted, cared for.
People are more important than plans, people are more important than the future – meaning - the people who are here and now with us – they are more important. We must make them understand that we value them, we care about them.
God works through people - through us - and so God hopes that we ourselves will give ourselves to the interruptions, and be like Jesus: a man of compassion, a man who listens, a man who cares, a man who heals by his listening.
And this is what changes the world… with the world we are living in now with so much darkness and violence and hatred; not so much the preaching, but the living with people in the ordinariness of everyday life, with its ups and downs, its confusions and all its problems.
The more that we try to be like Jesus, the more the Kingdom of God is preached to all the world… even in our small corner of the world because we become the presence of Jesus… people experience the loving presence of God through us - in our lives.
As has been said: “People will listen to and hear the Word of God if they first experience the love of God”… and “People do not care what you know or how much you know unless they know that you care.”
Preaching the word of God is not a matter of knowing what we are supposed to know and believe.
It is allowing the kindness and the love and the caring of Jesus that you and I experience ourself in our own life and have in our hearts – in turn - to reach from your heart into everybody else’s heart… because the Kingdom of God is the presence of God with His people… as Jesus did – Jesus let His people be filled with a kind of kindness as Jesus always felt from His Father.
It is in the interruptions in our plans in our daily lives, and the little things that put us off very often and admittedly which annoy us - paradoxically, actually – often times - it is through this little things in our ordinary life that the Kingdom of God is revealed.
Why? Because love is expressed through the small things in life.
If we are to preach the love of God, all we have to do is pay attention to the interruptions in our life, and we will find that God will lead us to an understanding of how people are touched, because this is what Jesus did.
The critical question is: How do we react when our plans do not work out? Things do not always happen the way we plan them. So, how do we react?
Most of us are inclined to react negatively whenever something we want is denied us or something we do not want is forced upon us.
That negative kind of response completely overlooks the fact that in this world – disappointment and disruption of our plans - go with the territory, so to speak… it is a fact of life.
In other words, in this life - we had better learn to expect the unexpected. We want one thing; we get another.
One of the most foolish things we can do is to waste our time resenting and resisting this universal reality. Jesus could have done that but he did not.
But you see - Jesus did not just passively resign himself to the inevitable.
He did not just endure the disappointment. He used it… for good.
He used the adversity and put it to work.
We can take our disappointment and use it to accomplish something good in ourselves and in our world. We cannot always decide what life does to us, but we can decide how we respond to life.
God bless…
