Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Reading I
Jer 23:1-6
Woe to the shepherds
who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture,
says the LORD.
Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel,
against the shepherds who shepherd my people:
You have scattered my sheep and driven them away.
You have not cared for them,
but I will take care to punish your evil deeds.
I myself will gather the remnant of my flock
from all the lands to which I have driven them
and bring them back to their meadow;
there they shall increase and multiply.
I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them
so that they need no longer fear and tremble;
and none shall be missing, says the LORD.
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.
In his days Judah shall be saved,
Israel shall dwell in security.
This is the name they give him:
"The LORD our justice."
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 23:1-3, 3-4, 5, 6
R (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
He guides me in right paths
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
with your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
for years to come.
R The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Reading II
Eph 2:13-18
Brothers and sisters:
In Christ Jesus you who once were far off
have become near by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace, he who made both one
and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh,
abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims,
that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two,
thus establishing peace,
and might reconcile both with God,
in one body, through the cross,
putting that enmity to death by it.
He came and preached peace to you who were far off
and peace to those who were near,
for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Gospel
Mk 6:30-34
The apostles gathered together with Jesus
and reported all they had done and taught.
He said to them,
"Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while."
People were coming and going in great numbers,
and they had no opportunity even to eat.
So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.
People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.
They hastened there on foot from all the towns
and arrived at the place before them.
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.
In the First Reading, the prophet Jeremiah speaks of a future successful son of David, beginning with the accusation that the “shepherds” are responsible for the nation’s exile to Babylon. By using the title “shepherds”, the prophet is referring to the monarchy. The prophet assures us that God is already at work to bring his judgment upon the kings (the bad shepherds). Indeed, all the last kings of Judah met their end tragically. In this prophecy, God will be the Good Shepherd who will gather the dispersed sheep and bring them back to their meadow, a symbolic way of speaking about the return from Babylonian captivity. This is a promise that is repeated in verses 7-8. The future ideal king is described as “a righteous shoot to David”, who unlike his predecessors will reign and govern wisely. Righteous shoot or “semah“ (Hebr) along with a synonymous expression in Isaiah 11:1, became a classic term for the Messiah and fueled the hopes of Israel in the centuries that followed and was finally fulfilled with the coming of Jesus “the son of David”, five centuries later. He will be the savior of Judah and will be called “the Lord our justice” (Yhwh sidqēnû = Yahweh is our justice) a title that is actually a word play on King Zedekiah’s name (sidqî-yāhû = my justice is Yahweh).
In the Second Reading, Paul speaks to us about the union of Jews and Gentiles. By using the special images “far off . . . near” he describes the former condition of the Gentiles and the new situation resulting from the death of Christ. In Pauline writings (Rom 5:10-11; 2 Cor 5:18-20) the reconciliation accomplished through the death of Christ brought peace and union with God. In Ephesians, this understanding of reconciliation is expanded in hymn-like form to include peace and unity between Gentiles and Jews. Tearing down the barrier wall may be a figurative reference to the wall separating Gentiles from the inner court of the Jerusalem Temple (see Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 15.11.5 §417), the noun in apposition, echthron, “enmity”, suggests thath the image is intended to depict the end of ethnic hostility between both groups. The sin of Adam flawed humanity and therefore caused alienation from God, but the new humanity created in Christ reconciles the relationship with God by virtue of the cross. The author uses the Adam-Christ typology of the Pauline writings to describe the new situation of Gentiles and Jews together forming the one new humanity in one body (sōma), which the writer interprets as the Church.
In today’s Gospel Reading, the short passage or pericope “rounds off” the mission of the Twelve and prepares the reader for the rest of chapter 6, which features two closely related and magnificent manifestations of Jesus’ identity as their Lord: first, as the one who feeds his people abundantly, and secondly, as the one who is with them in the most serious conflicts of their lives (the raging sea, verses 45-52). Although the apostles need time alone with Jesus, he responds first to the greater need of the crowd that has found his place of refuge. The first miracle of the breads reveals for Mark and the early church that Jesus is as powerful and loving as the God of the Exodus, who provided manna for his people wandering through the desert. When Jesus pities them with the words “for they were like sheep without a shepherd”, he becomes for Mark’s readers the Good Shepherd of Ezekiel 34; Numbers 27:17; and 1 Kings 22:17. These allusions to the Old Testament remind the reader of God’s providence in the past, and because of the miracle of the loaves that follow, the reader is given assurance that God cares for his people in the present through the Eucharist.
In his book The Imitation of Christ, Thomas Kempis says: “Jesus has many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few cross-bearers. Many desire His consolation, but few His tribulation. Many will sit down with Him at table, but few will share His fast. All desire to rejoice with Him, but few will suffer for Him. Many will follow Him to the breaking of the bread, but few will drink the bitter cup of His Passion. Many revere His miracles, but few follow the shame of His cross.” (Bk. 2, Ch. 11). This is precisely, in my view, what Jesus was implying when he says: “they were like sheep without a shepherd”, because the people had very few (if any) real shepherds to guide them. Jesus is echoing the thoughts of the prophet Jeremiah: “Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the LORD”. Christ, the only true and Good Shepherd, lived a life of sacrifice and martyrdom – a life of the cross, and he did so for his flock. As the Good Shepherd, he laid down his life that his flock should live.
Being an ordained minister of the Church, receiving the habit, or locking ourselves behind the door of a convent is of little use if we do not reform our lives and die to ourselves so that Christ may live in us. All are called to follow Christ, but a few are called to a more demanding role of shepherd. Whether these be men or women, the model to follow is Jesus the Good Shepherd, who sought only the good for our soul, and became the least and was subject to all. The shepherd who truly cares about his/her flock will remain with them, serve them, and protect them regardless of what tribulations may come, be it hunger, thirst, vigils and fast, persecution and insult. The true shepherd guides his/her flock on the path that leads to Jesus and will never put his/her needs before the needs of the flock. Just as the shepherd in the field carries a heavy burden and must never allow the routines of his/her life to come between themselves and their flock, so too must a shepherd of souls be willing to deny themselves and must be bound by an even stricter self-discipline to live a truly virtuous life in order to give others the example. The true shepherd of souls lives for others because in doing so he lives for Christ. To live the vocation of shepherd any other way is to mislead and scatter the flock – something God himself cursed through the prophet Jeremiah. To live the vocation of shepherd we must serve the flock entrusted to us, unite and lead them, and ultimately suffer and die for them just as Jesus the only Good Shepherd did.
New American Bible; United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Holladay, W. L., Jeremiah 1”; Hyatt, J. P., “The Book of Jeremiah”; McKane, W., “A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Jeremiah: Jeremiah I-XXV”; Thompson, J. A., “The Book of Jeremiah”; Bruce, F. F., “The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians”; Swain, L., “Ephesians”; Sanchez-Bosch, Jordi, "Escritos Paulinos”; Kingsbury, J. D., “The Christology of Mark’s Gospel”; Schweizer, E., “The Good News According to Mark”; Tuckett, C. (ed.), “The Messianic Secret”; “The Collegeville Bible Commentary”; Brown, Raymond E., S.S., “Introduction to the New Testament”; Brown, Fitzmyer, and Murphy (ed.) “The New Jerome Biblical Commentary”.
Thomas A. Kempis, “The Imitation of Christ”
Deacon Lazaro J. Ulloa
Agape
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