HOMILY WEEK 20 03 – Year II
On Being Good Shepherds in the Kingdom of God:
Memorial of St. Pius X
(Ezk 34:1-11; Ps 23; Mt 20:1-16)
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Did you know that by our baptism, we are shepherd-kings, called to help shepherd God’s people?
The readings today challenge us to deeper caring and greater openness to the mystery of how God works in our lives.
In the first reading, the prophet Ezekiel chastises the religious leaders of Israel. The same chastisement would apply to the sexual abuse scandal by hundreds of priests, and a possible cover-up by a bishop, in the Diocese of Pittsburgh that surfaced in Autumn of 2018. To Ezekiel, God asserts that God will shepherd God’s sheep. That is what God did in sending Jesus, who is our true shepherd, and who never ever used his divine power in a selfish manner. He consistently gave his life away in caring compassion and loving service.
Psalm 23 picks up from that last promise of God to the prophet Ezekiel. Jesus truly is our shepherd, with us at all times, good and bad. Sexual abuse victims who ask, “Where was God when that happened to me?” can take comfort that God, in Jesus, was right there with them, experiencing whatever they were experiencing. As Alana Levandowski sings so well in one of her plaintive songs, “God protects us from nothing, but unexplainably, sustains us in all things.”
Turning to the gospel, this parable does not seem fair on our usual terms, but is designed to stretch us into a deeper understanding of the depth of the Father’s love for us. Imagine a car dealer giving a prospective customer, shopping for a reasonable vehicle, a Mercedes Benz car loaded with extras at no extra cost, just because the dealer felt generous that day. That totally gratuitous, undeserved gesture would come nowhere near close to what God has done for us in giving us his own Son, Jesus Christ.
I got a glimpse into the deeper meaning of this parable one day in my first mission, as I had to leave playing on a ball team to attend to a couple who arrived at the rectory. It was hard paying attention to them as I glanced out the window wistfully at the game I was missing. After the couple left, I ran out to watch the end of the game, only to be welcomed back into it – they had played without me and were glad I was back. There was no anger on their part – I was the one who had missed out on part of the game.
That is how we need to view the kingdom of God – unfortunate are they who miss out on the peace and joy of participating in God’s own eternal life even now, because they think they can find happiness elsewhere. Fortunate are those who walk with Jesus and live in his Spirit each day of our lives – already participating in the heavenly ball game.
Guiseppe Sarto, whom we honour today, was born in Riese, Italy, in 1835. His mother was a seamstress and his father a parish clerk who died when Guiseppe was 16, leaving the family in financial straits. His mother insisted that the boy continue his education and fulfill his desire to become a priest. Ordained at age 23, he was involved in parish ministry for 17 years. He became a bishop in 1884, a cardinal in 1892 and was elected Pope Pius X in1903. He died in 1914, soon after the outbreak of World War I.
His recommendations and encyclicals reflect his pastoral background: he advocated frequent communion for adults, sacramental preparation for children and instruction in catechism for everyone. In his concern for the Church in a rapidly changing world, he issued a decree against writers holding modernist ideas in philosophy and theology and wrote an encyclical condemning modernism in all its manifestations. He was canonized in 1954.
The Eucharist is a foretaste of that heavenly banquet, and an experience of God’s eternal life already as forgiveness and healing, every time we celebrate it with sincere faith. May our celebration strengthen our faith in God’s love for us and deepen our experience of the kingdom of God here and now.
