HOMILY SUN 16-B

On Shepherding and Being Shepherded

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

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Did you know that if a lamb falls on its back, it cannot even right itself? That lamb needs a shepherd even for that.

The liturgy today invites us to let Jesus be our shepherd, to minister to us, and in turn, to shepherd others as he has cared for us.

Jeremiah, in the first reading, laments the infidelity of God’s chosen people – they are all like sheep gone astray. As a result, he has God promising both to shepherd God’s people himself, as well as raise up a righteous branch for David who will reign wisely and justly.

While Psalm 13 informs us “the Lord is our shepherd,” in the gospel we see that Jesus is the fulfillment of both those promises of God through Jeremiah – Jesus is both Son of God shepherding God’s people, including the disciples, and Son of Man, the human branch for David, who will reign justly and wisely.

As the Messiah, and our Good Shepherd, Jesus came among us with a two-fold mission – to redeem and to sanctify, to forgive and to heal. As our shepherd, we can always come to him to receive the forgiveness that is always there and be reconciled to his body, the Church. Even more important, we can come to him not just for forgiveness of our sin, but also for healing of our sinfulness – that which makes us sin – our painful emotions like anger and bitterness, and our negative attitudes like false pride, stubborn self-righteousness, and tendency to judge others.

Jesus chose twelve apostles to represent the twelve tribes of Israel. In doing so, he was forming a new Israel, a new chosen people of God, his body, the Church. We are given the same mission he gave to his apostles – to share the love he showered on them to the whole world. Forgiven and healed themselves (every appearance of the Risen Lord to the disciples was an experience of forgiveness), they were to go out and share that love with others.

How are they (and we) to love? There are five levels to that command to love. First, we are to love God with our whole being – the Great Shema of Israel they were to wear on their arms and on their foreheads. Then we are to love others – by our trust, understanding, affirmation, sharing of life. And, we are to love ourselves, by accepting ourselves as we are, and forgiving ourselves our mistakes of the past. Jesus then raises the bar – we are to love others as he has loved us, and that means sacrificial, agape love – giving our lives away and working for the common good. And finally, we are to love our enemies and do good to those who hurt us. That we do by forgiving them from the heart. Jesus teaches us in Matthew 18:15 how to do that – we are simply to not fight, flee or freeze when hurt, but rather share with those who hurt us how we feel about their behavior, and let it go.

When we love our enemies this way, we are just like Jesus on the Cross – “Father, forgive them – they know not what they do.” And when we act like God, we get to feel like God – peace and joy. Our dignity, self-worth and self-esteem comes back to us, because we are just like Jesus on the cross, and it doesn’t get any better than that.

Each time I help present a Worldwide Marriage Encounter weekend, it strikes me that living this teaching of Jesus to love is what we are all about. The talks cover loving ourselves by being in touch with our feelings and growing in self-awareness. They also lead the couples to deepen their relationship with one another through forgiveness and much deeper communication by sharing their feelings and trusting each other more fully. And they help the couples grow in their relationship with God as they learn how to live their sacrament of marriage more fully. Our motto is clearly, “Love one another as he has loved us.”

Justin, a friend who is now into podcasting, shared a reflection with me on my way to the airport to help present a WWME weekend. The responses he is getting to his podcasting suggests people are searching for community, relationships and belonging, but are in many ways lost, like sheep without a shepherd, in a world of virtual reality trying to find it. My experience, and the feedback from the couples who have experienced an ME weekend, is they find precisely the love, community and belonging they are looking for. Here is an excerpt from one couple fresh off a weekend:

“Thank you so much for an amazing weekend. Our love for each other grew stronger in such a short amount of time thanks to the communication techniques you taught us with the use of dialogue. Both my wife and I had no idea what to expect before coming to the marriage encounter but we left this weekend feeling energized, appreciated, loved, and more intertwined together. We are still at the beginning of our beautiful journey and we know it’s only going to get better! On the way back home, we couldn’t stop talking about how remarkable this weekend was for us, and how we want to be part of this extraordinary family called Worldwide Marriage Encounter. It’s as if we are already a part of this family in a way that can only be experienced through weekends like this. The Lord gave you to us as his instruments to show us the way to be closer to each other and live in God’s image. We can definitely say we are Marriage Encounter Couples for life!”

Psalm 23 states, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” The weekend wraps up with the Eucharist – truly a table set for us by the Lord, who nourishes us with his Word and heals us through our communion with his body and blood – a Good Shepherd ministering to his sheep with unconditional love.

Forgiven and healed by that love, we are empowered to go out to the whole world, proclaim the Good News of this love of God for God’s people, and make a difference in a world greatly in need of experiencing that love of our God.