About a month ago, I started attending a Bible study that a good friend of mine recommended I join. What’s more, because my friend knows I am a bit of a theology nerd, he had just the group of in mind for me to join. That is, it seems I never get tired of conversations about Sacred Scripture, philosophy, linguistics, Salvation history, and all other subjects pertaining to Catholic Christian belief.
And, well, I think I have found my dream team of fellow theologians and apologists: a tight knit group of about dozen gentleman, from age 40-something and up into the Golden years, and many of whom live right in the same neighborhood – and walking distance from the parish that most of the group attends. In fact, even most of the neighborhood itself is predominantly Catholic, with many belonging to the City of the Lord: a movement that encourages fellow Catholics to grow into deep relationship with God and build communities that actively fellowship and help each other in their faith journey. The City of Lord website describes it as follows:
“We are called to be a community. By living a life together based on commitment rather than convenience and service rather than self-centeredness, we bear witness to the character of God. We want to live in faithfulness to our covenant with God and one another, treasuring and protecting our love for one another, speaking and acting in a way that honors others. As stated in our covenant, we “agree to love, honor, support, and serve one another as brothers and sisters in the Lord.”
Which means I am now not only fellowshipping with gentlemen who, like myself, immerse themselves into Scripture and deep conversations, but also grow with a community that unabashedly proclaims the Gospel, wants to have an exquisitely meaningful connection with God, and helps each other achieve an important end goal for all Catholics: to become a Saint in fully holy communion with the triune God.
This leads me to the Mass readings for this 16th week in Ordinary Time: That Christ, as our eternal Shepherd, has not only fulfilled God’s most crucial Covenant – His death and Resurrection for our *us* — but has also given us the Holy Spirit to guide our personal transformation and be a shepherd to all who have not embraced the Gospel.
Speaking of the Gospel: While this reflection focuses mainly on the Gospel reading for this week, the other two readings, Jeremiah 23:1-6 and Ephesians 2:13-18, explain the foretelling and fulfillment of Christ as our eternal Shepherd and Savior. Hence why the shepherd analogy is an important theme throughout Scripture – and why we *all* need to be good shepherds to each other.
Take the Gospel reading, for instance: Although it primarily recaps the apostles returning from preaching and healing in Christ’s name, and that they were physically (and probably mentally) exhausted and hungry, we see multiple reasons why shepherding to each other is necessary and reflects Christ’s love for us.
This loops in the homily I listened to at Mass this past weekend: The homily related the apostle’s increasingly busy lives serving Christ with how modern-day humans are busier than ever before: We are constantly inundated with a colossal array of information and communication from social media, through the vast array of technology we use: cell phones, computers, games systems, and too many other types of electronic devices to list here. And though only so much preaching can drive this point home – and plenty of social scientists now are calling out the psychological challenges with being perpetually “busy” and distracted for long periods of time – the homily’s main message was this: If we are not carving out rest time each day to pray to God and nurture our relationship with Him, then we are much susceptible to temptations getting the best of us. Which also means becoming complacent, doubtful and, well, flat-out flakey.
Some spiritual-but-not-religious folks out there generally explain this behavior as not practicing mindfulness and quiet meditation. And while this not necessarily off the mark, mindfulness and meditation are components of the much greater connection to build: a deeply intimate relationship with God, through our Savior, Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
When we hold true to this relationship, we keep Christ as our Shepherd. We cement our need to live a moral and just life. We are no longer just practicing spiritual exercises to feel empowered and have a purpose. Instead, we are mirroring how our Shepherd, Christ, has taught us to live – and, in turn, be shepherds to humanity.
After all, if we are not a reflection of the Gospel – if we do not help shepherd fellow human beings towards a relationship with Christ – then we have much of what we see around us these days: a whole lot of people who have found a whole lot of ways to fill up their time, yet they are spiritually complacent with God. This leads to a host of societal issues and troubling statistics: the high rate of divorce, high rate of single parenthood, high rate of anxiety and depression, high rate of loneliness, growing rate of suicide, and growing rate of people leaving their spiritual life altogether or creating their own definition of truth.
Now, some skeptics may argue that following a shepherd just means, well, being a sheep. In other words, blindly following something simply because other sheep are doing the same. However, where does Christ say to follow Him blindly? Nowhere.
Instead, he *invites* us to trust him as our Shepherd – that He, by the power of the Holy Spirit, leads us to a life of grace, love, and meaningful relationships, should we choose to accept His gift of Salvation.