Raise questions for us

The passages from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today may raise questions for us. The nature of these questions may be to wonder about the forceful immigration of the Israelites to Canaan, our God living among other gods and a curious behaviour of a shepherd. The passing of leadership to Joshua from Moses is considered an example to us of how to surrender authority according to the Will of God to others by Friar Jude Winkler. Jewish midrash and tradition about Joshua shows him to be an apprentice of Moses throughout the journey from Egypt to Canaan. The Jewish tradition which may help us with the apparently violent nature of this invasion is that the residents of the cities which the Israelites occupied were given the option to leave in peace before the battles which would decide the matter violently. The psalmist seems to see the God of Israel standing among many gods. Jewish people, at the time of the writing of Deuteronomy, were moving from belief which was henotheist, there are many gods but Israel has chosen the True God, to monotheism, there is One God. Friar Jude notes that the Gospel of Matthew today reminds us of the attitude of simple faith and trust in Providence which we too often lose because of our overly analytical approach or our dismissal of those who are not “with us” in social, economic and intellectual space. The kingdom opens to us when we welcome the little ones who bring Christ. The teaching of Jesus in this text from Matthew, a Jew writing to a Jewish audience, has the form of rabbinical instruction of the time as He proposes the completely impractical idea that the shepherd would leave 99 sheep to find the lost one as the common practice. The effect of this approach is that we appreciate the radical difference of the approach of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, to seek out the lost who would be ignored by practical people. This approach is the Way for those disciples of Jesus who apprentice with Him and are prepared to be His servant-leader today.