Shepherd for Modern Society

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite contemplation of our role as disciples of the stone rejected by the builders.

Western Christianity from these ruins

In the rejection of Peter described in the Acts of the Apostles, the “Rock” is inspired by the Spirit to proclaim that deliverance comes through Jesus.

* [4:12] In the Roman world of Luke’s day, salvation was often attributed to the emperor who was hailed as “savior” and “god.” Luke, in the words of Peter, denies that deliverance comes through anyone other than Jesus.

In the First Letter of John, Christians living in Christ are exhorted to live virtuous lives to prepare for ultimately attaining true knowledge of God.

* [3:1–3] The greatest sign of God’s love is the gift of his Son (Jn 3:16) that has made Christians true children of God. This relationship is a present reality and also part of the life to come; true knowledge of God will ultimately be gained, and Christians prepare themselves now by virtuous lives in imitation of the Son.

The Gospel from John, contrasts the Good Shepherd with the hireling who works only for self interest.

* [10:1–21] The good shepherd discourse continues the theme of attack on the Pharisees that ends Jn 9. The figure is allegorical: the hired hands are the Pharisees who excommunicated the cured blind man. It serves as a commentary on Jn 9. For the shepherd motif, used of Yahweh in the Old Testament, cf. Ex 34; Gn 48:15; 49:24; Mi 7:14; Ps 23:1–4; 80:1.

Steve Scholer asks what we do when someone singles us out and praises us for a job well done. This situation is one where we may be tempted to put self interest first.

Do we take all the credit for ourselves, or do we give the praise and glory to our Lord and Savior? The best course of action is the latter, to not let pride come between us and God. We need to humble ourselves and give the praise and glory to God. Besides being right, it helps reinforce his constant presence in our lives and that his guiding hand is always on our shoulder, and that the good we are trying to do each and every day in this world is not for our personal gain, but for the greater glory of his kingdom.  Truth be told, we may just be the stones that were rejected by the builders; but, by our unselfish actions we can become the cornerstones of God’s church here on earth.

The greater glory of the Kingdom of God may have been an underlying theme of Western Christianity in the account of history as described by blogger Tribunus.

Western culture is, above all else, Roman - and Christian Roman at that. This is so because it has been shaped and defined by Roman Catholicism, ruled by a Roman Emperor, guided by a Roman Pontiff and blessed by Roman rites in a Roman language.

One of our modern challenges is to assess current leadership in society in the Light of the model of Jesus as Good Shepherd.

Don Schwager quotes Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D, on the nature of green pastures and still waters to which we are led by the Good Shepherd.

"The pastures that this good shepherd has prepared for you, in which he has settled you for you to take your fill, are not various kinds of grasses and green things, among which some are sweet to the taste, some extremely bitter, which as the seasons succeed one another are sometimes there and sometimes not. Your pastures are the words of God and his commandments, and they have all been sown as sweet grasses. These pastures had been tasted by that man who said to God, 'How sweet are your words to my palate, more so than honey and the honeycomb in my mouth!'" (excerpt from Sermon 366,3,1)

Friar Jude Winkler ties the description of the stone rejected to the rock in which Jesus Cross was supported on the Cross. He understands the journey of the faithful is ultimately to be no longer restricted by time and space. The Good Shepherd is characterized as One who lays down his Life for the sheep. The goal of One flock and One Shepherd requires a desire to welcome all people.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, declares that Jesus is by no definition a classic patriarch. He notes that throughout the Bible, both feminine and masculine images are used to illustrate the divine.

Jesus is by no definition a classic patriarch. The Divine is often called “Sophia” or Holy Wisdom in the Hebrew Scriptures; and God is variously described as a compassionate mother, a hen protecting her chicks, and even “The Breasted One” or El Shaddai (Genesis 17:1, Exodus 6:2).

One of the dualisms that challenges believers today is the tension between building a fortress to protect our Christian heritage from modern hired hands in world leadership and being yeast to infuse a selfish world with social justice that gathers the sheep in His fold.

References


(n.d.). CHAPTER 4 1 While they were still speaking to the people, the priests .... Retrieved April 22, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/acts/acts4.htm

(n.d.). 1 John, chapter 3 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved April 22, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/1john/3

(n.d.). John, chapter 10 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved April 22, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/john10:46

(n.d.). Creighton Online Ministries - Creighton University. Retrieved April 22, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html

(2011, May 10). ROMAN CHRISTENDOM: Good Shepherd Sunday. Retrieved April 22, 2018, from http://romanchristendom.blogspot.com/2011/05/good-shepherd-sunday.html

(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved April 22, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/

(2017, December 30). 2018 Daily Meditations - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved April 22, 2018, from https://cac.org/2018-daily-meditations/