16TH Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2024

Jeremiah 23:1-6; Ephesians 2:13-18; Mark 6:30-34

Any praises of shepherds and herdsmen is out of sync with Nigerians, with the continuous  murderous escapades of herdsmen in Nigeria. Family after family bury their loved ones murdered in cold blood. The question on every lips is “when will this end,” and “what have we done to merit this”? The more the questions asked, the less the answers received – as the saying goes, “the more you look, the less you see”. Not even the readings of today praise cattle-herdsmen or shepherds. God himself is disappointed with their performance and the slaughter of his sheep instead of the care expected of shepherds. The good news this Sunday, for all Nigerians and all those living under oppressions and despair of any kind, is that God sees and he will act. Our God is a God who acts, in order to restore justice and provide good shepherds for his people. Every human life is precious in God’s eyes, and he protects it against bad shepherds.

If Nigerians are frustrated with shepherds and herdsmen, and they have every reason to, likewise everyone going through tough times, whether it be the scourge of oppressive regimes, racial segregation, economic down-turn or lack of love and happiness, we all seek immediate and speedy resolutions to our problems: but is that how God functions, responding with immediate alacrity to problems? For today, however, imagine the frustration of God with the shepherds of Israel, according to our first reading, where proper and godly leadership was lacking, and God had to intervene. God’s intervention comes as a promise – he promises a Savior: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David; as king he shall reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land” (Jeremiah 23:5). How is this promise a solution to the problems of the people under oppression? Why not provide an immediate answer to the problems of people rather than postpone it to a future date? How easy is it to wait on and believe in a God like that?

Yes, it is evil and wrong to slaughter God’s people like animals! Yes, no taking of human life is excusable! Yet, instead of an immediate solution, God offers a prophetic word, he promises a better future and it is on that word of prophetic-promise that lies the solution to human problems of division, hatred and murderous intents. The problem is that we lack compassion, but God is compassion and love! The kind of leaders that the Lord seeks after aren’t just those who provide economic prosperity and military protection. No! God wants shepherds, who would lead his people to pasture, and the fodder the Lord’s flock needs is the word of God and righteousness. In fact, our first reading concludes with the words: “And this is the name by which he will be called: The Lord is our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6). The justice we seek is not human justice; rather, it is divine justice borne out by God’s show of compassion for the good, the bad and the ugly.

The condemnation of the sinner is not the major preoccupation of our God. Cattle-herdsmen, bad shepherds, bad leaders, bad followers, all these are God’s children. Our God is the God who asks “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7), NOT a God who asks “if you are not a FORNICATOR/ADULTERER be the first to cast a stone at her.” You know what, not only shepherds and cattle-herdsmen are sinners – we all are! “Compassionate as the Heavenly Father” is the watch word for Christians, who choose to imitate God. Only sinners, who have accepted that they are sinners and realized that they are alive by God’s mercy, can learn to forgive the sins of others, and still hope for a better future, no matter how delayed that future is. The mark of a sinner who trusts in the mercy and compassion of God is the ability to work for the realization of that better future, which is only possible by respecting God’s laws.

The responsorial Psalm of today, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,” is a confirmation that military might and economic astuteness could be provided by any leader, but a shepherd is one who leads people or the flock of God within the confines and perimeters provided by God. The emphasis of the responsorial Psalm is the quality of care we provide for the souls of God’s people, and not just their material well-being that is at stake: “he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Ps 23:3), says our Psalm. A shepherd’s job is to lead people on the “paths of righteousness” because of God – “for his name’s sake”. The “paths of the Lord” are charted and defined by God’s commandments: “Blessed is the person who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Ps 1:1-2).

The absence of righteousness opens our eyes to the reality of division and hatred, making the search for common grounds alien to human enterprise. That is, when “compassion” has no place in us, it becomes very easy to see exclusively human differences and not human similarities; we fan the flames of division and orchestrate war machineries as if we are doing God a favor! Only a righteous person can see that Christians, Buddhists, Moslems, Traditionalists and all human beings are the same – God’s creatures! Shakespeare is spot on when he argues: “Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?” (Merchant of Venice, Act 3 Scene 1).

“Compassion” and “pity” turn human beings into teachers of righteousness and good shepherds; they make ignorance the bane of human sinfulness. Jesus distinguishes himself as an embodiment of compassion and pity in our gospel reading today: “When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things” (Mark 6:34). The plights of the human person turn on the compassion of God; human iniquities are confronted by the knowledge of God and the keeping of God’s commandments. “The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught,” says today’s gospel. We are all sent out into the whole world by God to show compassion and love to humanity despite its shortcomings. The disciples who reported their ministries to Jesus today went out to heal the sick, cast out demons, and bring integral healing to all who needed help. That is what God’s compassion looks like and demands.

Indeed, God needs shepherds because he has no intention of working alone. He chose and sent out his followers because every human being has a stake in the project of God. It is only when the human person has discharged his duties that God takes over. The tired disciples of today’s gospel were entitled to a vacation because they had worked hard. When the disciples were tired, Jesus took over the work of healing and teaching the crowd “for they were like sheep without a shepherd”. He leads his disciples to a vacation place that is lonely and deserted because it is only in the stillness of loneliness that one could hear the voice of God; and, it is in a deserted place that one realizes the indispensability of God and the human dependence on God for survival.

A shepherd gives up his life for others; he/she takes no one’s life. According to our second reading, “In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have become near by the blood of Christ”. God abhors every sectarianism and division. In God, everyone has a place and belongs to the family of God. The unity of God’s people is realized through the shedding of the blood of Christ. “Us versus them” has no place in God. If the same people who built the walls of Berlin could bring it down, it is possible to bring down every wall of separation dividing different races, cultures, civilizations, tribes, genders, ethnicities and nationalities. It suffices to be as compassionate as the Heavenly Father is compassion; it is enough to see and appreciate the humanity in the other! How true, “Compassionate as the Heavenly Father: Only a Sinner Understands it!”

Let us conclude with a story: A man was seen by his neighbors looking for something on the ground. They asked him what he was looking for and he said it was his keys. They joined him in the search. After a while, one of his neighbors asked him: Where did you misplace your keys, Rabbi? The Rabbi answered; “inside my house?” Then, a follow-up question to the Rabbi: “if you misplaced your keys inside your house, why look for them outside?” The rabbi answered, “because it was dark inside my house, and I couldn’t see in the dark, so I came to look for my keys outside, where it is clear and bright!

If we don’t learn to love sinners, the extermination of one another under any pretexts at all will never cease!

 Assignment for the Week :

Could you pray the Divine Mercy chaplet this week for the conversion of sinners?