The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate our call to model the Good Shepherd in our action toward others.
Green Pastures and still waters
In the reading from the Prophet Ezekiel, we can contrast false shepherds with God, the True Shepherd.
* [34:2] Shepherds: the leaders of the people. A frequent title for kings and deities in the ancient Near East; the ideal ruler took care of his subjects and anticipated their needs. Ezekiel’s oracle broadens the reference to include the whole class of Jerusalem’s leaders (v. 17). The prophet assures his audience, the exiles in Babylon, that God holds these leaders responsible for what has happened to Jerusalem and will give Israel a new shepherd worthy of the title.1
Psalm 23 is a beautiful description of the Divine Shepherd.
* [Psalm 23] God’s loving care for the psalmist is portrayed under the figures of a shepherd for the flock (Ps 23:1–4) and a host’s generosity toward a guest (Ps 23:5–6). The imagery of both sections is drawn from traditions of the exodus (Is 40:11; 49:10; Jer 31:10).2
In the Gospel of Matthew, the parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard inspires reflection on justice, envy, and generosity
* [20:1–16] This parable is peculiar to Matthew. It is difficult to know whether the evangelist composed it or received it as part of his traditional material and, if the latter is the case, what its original reference was. In its present context its close association with Mt 19:30 suggests that its teaching is the equality of all the disciples in the reward of inheriting eternal life.3
Molly Mattingly comments that God gives us far more than is just! A mature faith isn’t a transactional relationship. God doesn’t just pay us for working towards the kingdom. God gives us what God wants us to receive, in love.
“Are you envious because I am generous?”
This is the same question that the father could ask the son who stayed at home in the parable of the lost son. Frankly, I could often answer “yes.” But as soon as I recognize my envy, it seems absurd. It reveals a misunderstanding of how God works, how love works, or even how people work! Of course someone can be generous to whomever they wish! There’s a logic of finite love hidden in that envy: if God loves and cares for someone else, God can’t love and care for me as much. As humans our time, energy, and resources may be limited in that way. God’s love transcends those limits. The vineyard owner in this parable cares for each worker by providing what they need to live for the day, regardless of when they were able to start working or how deserving their peers judged them to be. The question then becomes, “Can I be grateful that God is generous to others? Can I share in the joy of God’s generosity?”4
Don Schwager shares a prayer.
Lord Jesus,fill me with your Holy Spirit that I may serve you joyfully and serve my neighbor willingly with a generous heart, not looking for how much I can get, but rather looking for how much I can give.5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 20:1-16 comments it can be hard to wrap our minds around this parable. It just doesn’t seem fair. But God’s mercy can’t be limited or measured out. It is so vast, so overflowing, that it is always pouring out like a waterfall from his heart. So while it might seem to us that God should dole out mercy like a paycheck, it doesn’t work that way. Whoever comes to him will be covered in his mercy—a mercy that saves us and fills us with his divine life.
This parable shows us that there is always hope for our loved ones who haven’t yet come to the Lord. God is a communion of love—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and he is always offering his love and mercy to us. And that’s what he will do when anyone comes to his vineyard, no matter what time of day!
“Lord, I praise you today for your abundant love and mercy, which know no bounds!”6
Friar Jude Winkler connects the passage from Ezekiel to the Feast of Dedication and Jesus self identification as the Good Shepherd. Working as Jesus demonstrates is it’s own reward. Friar Jude underlines that Christ is all we need as he rejects heaven with different layers.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments Brian McLaren has spent years imagining “a new kind of Christianity” that invites people into a deepening commitment to love of God, neighbor, and self. Such a movement for the common good is surely disruptive or “disordering” to our status quo, just as Jesus disrupted the status quo in his own day.
“The moving ever shall stay,” [twelfth-century Hindu mystic and poet] Basava said. [1] Those words contradict so much of our inherited religious sensibility. “Stay the same. Don’t move. Hold on. Survival depends on resistance to change,” we were told again and again. “Foment change. Keep moving. Evolve. Survival depends on mobility,” the Spirit persistently says. . . .
If you want to see the future of Christianity as a great spiritual migration, don’t look at a church building. Go look in the mirror and look at your neighbor. God’s message of love is sent into the world in human envelopes.7
When our action to work for others is based on their needs and not our reward, we are transitioning beyond a transactional understanding of our relationship with God.
References
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