What the shepherd sees

The images from contemplation of the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today are of groups of people who are seen suffering abuse, receiving Divine guidance, celebrating in unity, and gathering with their needs.

Table communion

The Prophet Jeremiah promises a descendant of David will be chosen by God to save the people from false, self serving shepherds.

* [23:1–8] With the false rulers (shepherds) who have governed his people the Lord contrasts himself, the true shepherd, who will in the times of restoration appoint worthy rulers (vv. 1–4). He will provide a new king from David’s line who will rule justly, fulfilling royal ideals (vv. 5, 6). “The Lord our justice” is an ironic wordplay on the name of the weak King Zedekiah (“The Lord is justice”). Unlike Zedekiah, the future king will be true to the name he bears. Verses 7–8 may have been added during the exile.

The action of the Divine Shepherd in our lives is expressed succinctly in 6 lines of Psalm 23.

In the Letter to the Ephesians, Paul praises the unity brought to Jews and gentiles by their communion in the Body of Christ.

* [2:14–16] The elaborate imagery here combines pictures of Christ as our peace (Is 9:5), his crucifixion, the ending of the Mosaic law (cf. Col 2:14), reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18–21), and the destruction of the dividing wall such as kept people from God in the temple or a barrier in the heavens.* [2:15] One new person: a corporate body, the Christian community, made up of Jews and Gentiles, replacing ancient divisions; cf. Rom 1:16.

In the Gospel from Mark, Jesus desire for quiet reflection with His disciples is displaced by being “moved to His guts” by the needs of the people crowding around them.

* [6:31–34] The withdrawal of Jesus with his disciples to a desert place to rest attracts a great number of people to follow them. Toward this people of the new exodus Jesus is moved with pity; he satisfies their spiritual hunger by teaching them many things, thus gradually showing himself the faithful shepherd of a new Israel; cf. Nm 27:17; Ez 34:15.

Larry Gillick, S.J. offers an imaginative reflection that characterizes our many reasons to be curious about how and why Jesus draws a crowd.

The human condition in all its forms was united in the one basic hunger. Each was hungry for completion. They represent “longing.” They had not found satisfaction in fulfilling themselves. Jesus will miraculously feed their bodies.  He knows that this food will not totally satisfy, that they will want more. He taught them before breading them. He spoke to them about the sacredness of their deeper longings, their truer hungers, their fascination with answers which result in further questions.
Jesus knew that each would return to their lives again, but just maybe each was comforted in the awareness that this Person Who could teach and do wonderful things, loved them personally and collectively.  Perhaps the sceptics, the arguers, the self-isolators were moved to be a little more tender and accepting of their own human insufficiency of all kinds. Perhaps they were able to live more honestly with their doubts, fears, questions and self-poverty.

Don Schwager quotes Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D. on how the good shepherd feeds us with the words of God.

"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!' (Psalm 119:103)."

The Word Among Meditation on Ephesians 2:13-18 invites us to act on the prayer “Come, Lord, and heal every division and wounded relationship.”

If Jesus can overcome centuries of division between Jews and Gentiles, surely he can heal the divisions in our lives. It may not happen overnight or in the way we expect, but it can happen—especially if we work toward it ourselves. So take one relationship today, whether you need to offer forgiveness, let go of resentment, or ask for forgiveness, and see what you can do to break down the walls. It won’t happen overnight—just as it took time for the early Church. But if you persevere, it will happen.

Friar Jude Winkler places the concerns of Jeremiah in the history of Judah and Israel under weak leadership. Our role as shepherd is connected to the people we encounter in our daily experience. The Ephesians and the people to whom Jesus ministered experienced the reality of healing through His Presence.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, asserts that Jesus didn’t want his community to have a social ethic; he wanted it to be a social ethic. Their very way of eating and organizing themselves was to be an affront to the system of dominance and power. They were to live in a new symbolic universe, especially symbolized by what we now call open table fellowship.

More than a theological statement that requires intellectual assent, the Eucharist is an invitation to socially experience the shared presence of God, and to be present in an embodied way. Remember, within a Trinitarian worldview, everything comes down to relationship...
Jesus already showed us in practice and in ritual that the spiritual, social, political, and economic move together as one. In fact, that is what makes something “spiritual”—that is whole, combining sacred and secular, matter and spirit.

Jesus goes to the flock, to our homes, and our places of worship to bring fellowship and unity through interaction and compassion around our tables.

References


(n.d.). Jeremiah, chapter 23 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved July 22, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/jeremiah/23

(n.d.). Ephesians, chapter 2 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved July 22, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/ephesians/2 

(n.d.). Mark, chapter 6 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved July 22, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/mark/6

(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved July 22, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html 

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

(n.d.). Meditations - The Word Among Us. Retrieved July 22, 2018, from https://wau.org/meditations/

(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archives - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved July 22, 2018, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/