The Compassionate Shepherd:
The Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024
July 21, 2024
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Jeremiah 23:1-6; Psalm 23; Ephesians 2:13-18; Mark 6:30-34
Last week, we heard Jesus instruct his disciples to go forth with the bare minimum to be received well by their poor, yet gracious hosts. Today, they return with deep satisfaction and surprise by their ready reception for a people seeking the good news. The abundance of positive emotions in this Gospel passage is consoling. You can hear the healthy pride within Jesus as he wants his friends to come to a deserted place so he can hear their accounts. Jesus knew that they needed time with him to tell their stories, and he provided an opportunity for them to be affirmed and heard. You can sense that they were bubbling over in joyful emotions and needed time to process what they experienced.
They did not get the rest they needed because their preaching was spot on. It met the needs of the people who hungered for an accessible God in their lives. They preached a new message: You do not only find God in a Temple, or a church, or a formally designated place. God is around you. God is near and is radically concerned about your life. God wants to be in a nurturing, shepherding relationship with you. God hears your cries and prayers, and God wants you to know that God is there for you. And the people came – not just for Jesus, for the message the disciples were preaching. Everyone wants to hear that good news. This was an urgently needed message.
Jesus and his friends did not get the rest they needed because they put God’s love into action. They could not preach and go home. No. They had to meet the people in their needs and tell them more fully about God’s reign. Good preaching encourages further questions and conversations. It makes me reflect upon what to say. When was the last time we saw people flock into church to hear a preacher? The content must meet the needs of a hungering people, and it must give them the compassion of God. Not only that, it also cannot just be words. Those words must be followed by genuine actions that show love in action. The preacher must show that he loves you as God does. This is the message that many want to hear. These are the actions people want to experience.
Today’s Scripture shows us that God wants to your shepherd. The readings from Jeremiah tell us that there will always be religious leaders who are concerned with clericalism, rigorism, and elitism, and they may not be the type of shepherd God wants. The Psalm gives us the most positive image of a Good Shepherd, and the Gospel portrays Jesus as that model of Shepherd. God has a compassionate heart. Paul tells us in Ephesians that Jesus is the unifier. He did the miraculous in unifying the Jews with the Gentiles so there can never be any division among believers. That reconciliation was perhaps the most groundbreaking event in religious history. In God’s reign, all are welcome, and God’s church cannot not discriminate or put people on the margins. God’s compassion reconciles and it destroys ideologies. It destroys political enmity. It heals family divisions. It gives dignity to the one beaten down. It restores and reconnects. It is not merely cliché to say that God’s compassion, God’s love conquers all.
The disciples were utterly surprised that people received their message so well. Their preaching and love restored a connection that had been severed. This love, this compassion reconnects and binds, and the biblical people found a way to connect with God, who cared for them rightly. They could once again believe that God is indeed present for them and is able to hear their prayers. Today, we must put this love in action, through right caring. Teach me to preach to you in a way that you know that God is near to you, present to you, cares for you, and hears your prayers. Teach me how to connect you to this God who is compassion, the God who is in your midst.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (Song of Songs 3) The Bride says: On my bed at night, I sought him whom my heart loves–I sought him but I did not find him. I will rise then and go about the city; in the streets and crossings I will seek Him whom my heart loves.
Tuesday: (Micah 7) Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, that dwells apart in a woodland, in the midst of Carmel. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
Wednesday: (Jeremiah 1) Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you. “Ah, Lord GOD!” I said, "I know not how to speak; I am too young.”, Say not, “I am too young.” To whomever I send you, you shall go;
Thursday: (2 Corinthians 4) We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.
Friday (Jeremiah 3) Return, rebellious children, says the LORD, for I am your Master; I will take you, one from a city, two from a clan, and bring you to Zion. I will appoint over you shepherds after my own heart, who will shepherd you wisely and prudently.
Saturday (Jeremiah 7) Reform your ways and your deeds, so that I may remain with you in this place. Put not your trust in the deceitful words: "This is the temple of the LORD!
Gospel:
Monday: (John 20) Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?"
Tuesday: (Matthew 12) While Jesus was speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.”
Wednesday (Matthew 13) A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots.
Thursday (Matthew 20) The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, "What do you wish?" She answered him, "Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom."
Friday (Matthew 13) Hear the parable of the sower. The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the Kingdom without understanding it, and the Evil One comes and steals away what was sown in his heart. The seed sown on rocky ground
is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy.
Saturday (Matthew 13) The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.
Saints of the Week
July 21: Lawrence of Brindisi, priest and doctor (1559-1619) was a Capuchin Franciscan who was proficient in many languages and well-versed in the Bible. He was selected by the pope to work for the conversion of the Jews and to fight the spread of Protestantism. He held many positions in the top administration of the Franciscans.
July 22: Mary Magdalene, apostle (1st century), became the "apostle to the apostles" as the first witness of the resurrection. Scriptures point to her great love of Jesus and she stood by him at the cross and brought spices to anoint his body after death. We know little about Mary though tradition conflates her with other biblical woman. Luke portrays her as a woman exorcised of seven demons.
July 23: Bridget of Sweden, religious (1303-1373), founded the Bridgettine Order for men and women in 1370, though today only the women’s portion has survived. She desired to live in a lifestyle defined by prayer and penance. Her husband of 28 years died after producing eight children with Bridget. She then moved to Rome to begin the new order.
July 24: Sharbel Makhuf, priest (1828-1898), joined a monastery in the Maronite tradition and lived as a hermit for 23 years after living fifteen years in the community. He became known for his wisdom and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.
July 25: James, Apostle (1st century), is the son of Zebedee and the brother of John. As fishermen, they left their trade to follow Jesus. They occupied the inner circle as friends of Jesus. James is the patron of Spain as a shrine is dedicated to him at Santiago de Compostela. He is the patron of pilgrims as many walk the Camino en route to this popular pilgrim site.
July 26: Joachim and Anne, Mary's parents (1st century) are names attributed to the grandparents of Jesus through the Proto-Gospel of James. These names appeared in the Christian tradition though we don't know anything with certitude about their lives. Devotion of Anne began in Constantinople in the 6th century while Joachim gained acclaim in the West in the 16th century. He was revered in the Eastern churches since the earliest times.
This Week in Jesuit History
- July 21, 1773. In the Quirinal Palace, Rome, Clement XIV signed the Brief for the suppression of the Society.
- July 22, 1679. The martyrdom at Cardiff, Wales, of St Phillip Evans.
- July 23, 1553. At Palermo, the parish priests expressed to Fr. Paul Achilles, rector of the college, indignation that more than 400 persons had received Holy Communion in the Society's church, rather than in their parish churches.
- July 24, 1805. In Maryland, Fr. Robert Molyneux was appointed the first superior by Father General Gruber.
- July 25, 1581. In the house of the Earl of Leicester in London, an interview occurred between Queen Elizabeth and Edmund Campion. The Queen could scarcely have recognized the worn and broken person before her as the same brilliant scholar who had addressed here at Oxford 15 years before.
- July 26, 1872. At Rome, the greater part of the Professed House of the Gesu was seized and appropriated by the Piedmontese government.
- July 27, 1609. Pope Paul V beatifies Ignatius.
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