At this time in the Church
year, we are working our way through the Gospel of Mark, approaching the record
of the Feeding of the 5,000 (Mark 6). In
the next five weeks, we are going to take a break from Mark in order to
meditate on John’s account of the same event (John 6), which will provide a
lengthy opportunity to reflect on the theology and biblical basis for the
Eucharist. This Sunday, however, we will
only read the introduction of the account of the 5,000, and focus on the issue
of leadership for God’s people rather than the Eucharist itself.
1. Our first reading comes from the prophet
Jeremiah:
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."
The “shepherds” of Israel are
their leaders, primarily the king and his servants, but also the priests and
prophets. King, priest, and prophet were
the basic leadership roles in ancient Israelite society, and each role was
bestowed on an individual through the ritual of anointing with oil.
In the days of Israel, the
king, priests, and prophets of Judah were leading the people for their own
gain, taking advantage of them in order to enrich themselves (see e.g. Jer
34:8-22). Jeremiah, speaking on behalf
of God, promises the coming of a “righteous shoot” from the line of David, a
just king who will lead God’s people according to God’s law and not simply by the
principles of Realpolitik (political
expediency). The word for “shoot” or
“branch” here is tzemach; its synonym
netzer is used in a similar context
in Isaiah 11:1, another prophecy of this righteous son from the line of
David.
Obviously, the authors of the
New Testament recognized Jesus as the promised righteous “branch.” Matthew in particular sees it as striking
that the promised netzer came from
the town of netzereth (i.e. Nazareth,
“Branchtown” or “Branchton”) and draws attention to this providential
“coincidence” in Matt 2:23.
Jeremiah’s prophecy of God’s
restoration of good shepherds is very similar to Ezekiel’s famous oracle about
the Good Shepherd in Ezekiel 34. We
quote from the heart of the passage:
Ezek. 34:20 “Therefore,
thus says the Lord GOD to them: Behold, I, I myself will judge between the fat
sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you push with side and
shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns, till you have scattered
them abroad, 22 I will save my
flock, they shall no longer be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and
sheep. 23 And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and
he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24
And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among
them; I, the LORD, have spoken.
Jeremiah and Ezekiel
prophesied during the same time period (early 6th century BC), and
shared many things in common, not the least of which was the conviction that
the current leadership of Israel were “bad shepherds,” but a good shepherd
would come one day from the line of David.
Ezekiel’s prophecy has
notable connections to the Gospel accounts of the Feeding of the 5,000. This is how Ezekiel described the work of the
future good shepherd:
Ezek 34:13 And I
will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and
will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of
Israel, by the fountains, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14
I will feed them with good pasture, and upon the mountain heights of Israel
shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on
fat pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. 15
I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says
the Lord GOD.
Note that the people of
Israel will be (1) fed on the mountains, (2) with good pasture, and (3) they
shall lie down on good grazing land, because (4) God makes them lie down. All these themes reappear in Mark 6 and John
6, when Jesus makes the Israelites lie down on the “much green grass” that
covers the mountains where he is teaching them.
2. The Responsorial is Psalm 23:
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.
Along with John 3:16 and the
Lord’s Prayer, Psalm 23 is one of the most beloved passages in all of
Scripture, and one of the most frequently memorized. Interestingly, it was one of two sections of
the Old Testament (the other being the Song of Songs!) most popular among the
Church Fathers to use for sacramental catechesis. The whole psalm may be read as a description
of the Christian sacramental life. The
“restful waters” are Baptism; the “table before me” is the Eucharistic table;
the “overflowing cup” contains the Precious Blood; the anointing of “my head
with oil” is Confirmation; the “walk
through the dark valley” is death, from which we are resurrected to “dwell in
the house of the LORD” eternally. There
is scarcely a better psalm to be read on this Sunday, when we reflect on Jesus
our Good Shepherd, who in this very Mass will set the table before us and feed
us with his very body. The Eucharistic
table is set “in the sight of my foes,” which points out the mystery of
persecution in the Christian life.
Persecution is never wholly absent, and often powerfully present, for
the follower of Christ. As we in America
watch as various forms of indirect persecution of Christians increase due to
those who control the media and the educational system, let’s pray for
deliverance and freedom, not only for ourselves but more especially for those
under Muslim, communist, and other regimes around the world who face much more
visible and violent abuse for their faith.
3. The Second Reading is from 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.
The Second Reading is
“marching to the beat of its own drummer” during Ordinary Time, in this case
moving through Ephesians regardless of the theme of the Gospel. Nonetheless, there are always providential
connections.
In this reading, Paul is
encouraging Gentile Christians to be grateful for what God did for them in
Jesus Christ. These Gentiles were once
“far off” but now they are “near” by the blood of Christ. Jesus “made both one”—that is, Jews and
Gentiles into one people, the Church.
The “dividing wall of enmity” St. Paul speaks of is a complex image
taken from the actual architecture of the Jerusalem Temple, which had a
physical wall separating the outer court accessible to Gentiles from the inner
precincts only permissible for Jews. St.
Paul uses this image of the dividing wall as a metaphor for the Mosaic covenant
(the “Old Covenant”) and its laws, which due to its ceremonial and ritual
requirements prevented Jews from living, eating, or worshiping with Gentiles—it
forced cultural and religious separation of Jews and non-Jews. However, Christ is the “one new
person”—literally, “the one new Man,” an allusion to Adam. Jesus is the New Adam, a spiritual father of
all people, just as Adam is physical father of both Jew and Gentile. So he brings us “peace,” a concept associated
with Eden. The New Adam leads all his
children back to the peaceful garden of Eden, where we eat from the Tree of
Life (the cross) which bears the fruit of his own body and blood. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for this
sheep.
Combined with the other
readings, this passage of Ephesians reminds us that Jesus came to create of
mankind one united flock. In St. Paul’s
day the greatest source of division was the cultural rift of Jew and Gentile,
but in our own day his words urge us to think beyond the divisions in our
hearts and in our culture: East vs. West; First World vs. Third World; Democrat
vs. Republican; rich vs. poor, black vs. white, urban vs. “redneck”, or
whatever other category we use to divide “us” from “them.” Jesus came to remove “us” and “them” thinking
and replace it with “we” thinking. St.
Josemaria used to say “Out of a hundred persons, we are interested in a
hundred.” By that he meant: Christ died
for all and wants every individual regardless of their demographic
characteristics to be part of his one flock.
We can’t exclude anyone from our love and our prayer.
The Church is the original
organization to work for world unity. Other
movements or organizations that work for world peace or unity—like the United
Nations, the Bahai faith, and many others—are trying to replicate or
reduplicate the mission of Jesus Christ through the Church. The Church is God’s plan for human unity. In the Church, through Jesus Christ, all human
beings are called to be reunited in the family of God.
4. The Gospel is Mark 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 part of this
passage, we see that Jesus is a Good Shepherd to his under-shepherds, the
apostles, and makes the effort to allow them time for prayer, rest, and
refreshment. This is an important
reminder for those that work in some form of pastoral or religious ministry,
because there can be a tendency toward burn-out. We need to be reminded that Jesus loves also
us, and doesn’t will our self-destruction.
We, too, need time for rest, prayer, and renewal. We, too, need to experience Jesus as our Good
Shepherd before we can be good shepherds for others.
In the second part of this
gospel, we see Jesus disembarking and feeling pity for the people who were
“like sheep without a shepherd.” These
were descendants of Israel, who were without a shepherd in many senses. For example, there was no Son of David, no
legitimate king, reigning over them. A Roman
governor and an half-Jew named Herod were their leaders. Even the religious leaders were corrupt: the
high priesthood was from an illegitimate line of descent, and was more
interested in maintaining its own wealth and privilege by collaborating with
the Romans than it was in leading the people to God through the liturgy. The Pharisees tried to fill the gap by
providing religious instruction for the people, but their interpretations of
the law were so demanding that common people could never live up to their
standards of “cleanliness” and “holiness.”
***
Want to go to Israel and see where Jesus multiplied the loves? Come on the May 2019 Pilgrimage to the Holy Land with Dr. John Bergsma! More info is here.
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