Feeding the Sheep
Posted by Tom and April Hoopes in Faith on Saturday, July 18, 2009 6:00 AM
(Tom and April Hoopes are co-editorial directors of Faith and Family magazine. In this weekly column, they share family-friendly ways of observing the liturgical year and celebrating the Sunday readings.)
July 19 Readings
Jeremiah 23:1-6; Psalm 23: 1-3, 3-4, 5, 6; Ephesians 2:13-18; Mark 6:30-34
Our Take
By telling the story of Christ through the metaphor of sheep, today’s readings teach two important, paradoxical lessons: the great humility we should feel and the great dignity God saw in us.
First, the humility. A friend who works with sheep has told us how much trouble they are — because they are so stupid.
There are wild horses and wild goats, but our sheep could never survive without humans. Sheep can be easily tricked, they don’t learn quickly or consistently, and left to their own devices, they will wander to their deaths.
It’s easy to object to being called a sheep. We want to think of ourselves as extraordinary creatures, and, compared to other animals, we are. But compared to God, and even the angels, we’re far from extraordinary.
We’re easily tricked by our appetites and led astray by our passions. We repeat the same mistakes over and over and become the slaves of sin. When fellow sheep are our shepherds, we suffer from a new problem: bad shepherds.
But the ideal in today’s Psalm — “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want” — is realized in today’s Gospel.
In it, Christ invites his apostles — future shepherds — to “Come away by yourselves and rest.” The crowds seek them out, because they are like “sheep without a shepherd.” So Christ shows the apostles how he himself will shepherd them.
This is an extraordinary thing: the fulfillment of the prophecy in today’s first reading. God himself decided to shepherd his people. He took upon himself the task of chasing strays, prodding the reluctant, tolerating human obstinacy, cluelessness and thoughtless cruelty.
His shepherds are still imperfect, but now Christ, the Good Shepherd is available to all through the sacraments. With him as our shepherd, we are living Psalm 23. We meet Christ in the “restful waters” of baptism; we are anointed by him in confirmation, holy orders and the anointing of the sick, and we are given his overflowing cup in the Eucharist. With him as our shepherd, what should we fear?
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