Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Assassins and Shepherds

Political Turmoil

quite a week:

attempted assassination of Donald Trump;

the [never-ending] saga of whether President Biden should continue his candidacy.

angry words and actions;

frequent changes of policy and tactics;

revolving doors in the presidential administration.

Disputes, often with sharp differences

and debates that may sometimes be more bitter than constructive,

not to mention bitter divisions and rivalries between countrymen.

Maybe we think that we’ve become used to it all;

I don’t think we ever do.

Meanwhile:

Jeremiah

First blasts the religious and civil leaders

who by disobeying God’s word from the prophets

had sent the people into exile.

Jeremiah 23:2 (ESV-CE)

Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord.

then, God

promises a ‘Righteous Branch’, who will obey the commandments and properly care for his people.

Jesus

The church has always understood that Jesus fulfills this and other prophecies more fully and perfectly than the prophets imagined.

We see a glimpse of this understanding in today’s Gospel passage.

Mark 6:34 (ESV-CE)

When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.

Ephesians

Sees a vision of God’s care for his people far beyond anything the prophets had imagined.

Ephesians 2:14 (ESV-CE)

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

Ephesians 2:15 (ESV-CE)

by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,

Ephesians 2:16 (ESV-CE)

and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing (annihilating) the hostility.

When we consider

all this in light of the Gospel together with current events,

You might wonder —

What happened to the beautiful vision of God’s tender care

and the restoration of justice?

Where is the reconciliation and unity?

Doesn’t Ephesians tell us that Christ has already accomplished it

by crucifying it together with him

annihilating the bond of sin that has bound us?

It might help to remember

We in the Church

Live between ‘Already’ and ‘Not Yet’

Christ’s mission has been accomplished,

but its effects aren’t complete

until <Everything in heaven and on earth has been put under the dominion of Christ.>

That being so, we realize

We won’t be finished our work any time soon.

We priests are all ordained and appointed Pastors

shepherds of God’s flock.

I have to ask myself

I suspect most of us must ask:

Am I a shepherd like those Jeremiah blasts;

or do I try to carry on the work of caring for and reconciling God’s people?

Even though the image of the shepherd isn’t close to ur modern experience

I think we understand and the people we serve grasp

the immediacy of God’s care that it conveys.

Now

do I, do we,

pray for the grace,

work to develop the charism

to serve in the manner of Jesus who

Saw that they were lost and had compassion on them

(Never mind that they were crowding around him so that he couldn’t spend a few hours alone with his closest companions).