Homily: 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 21, 2024
Dear brothers and sisters, first a brief introduction, I am Fr. Charles Ogbuagu, a Nigerian priest, 40 years old man and 11 years a priest. Thank you all for welcoming me to this our parish.
The first reading, the responsorial psalm and the gospel reading of today has much to teach us using this imagery of the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. Beginning first with the gospel reading, Jesus is presented as the good shepherd whose compassion for His flock knows no bounds. The first reading from the prophet Jeremiah warns those bad shepherds who destroy and scatter God’s flock to beware because the time is coming when God will pay them for their evil doings. In the responsorial psalm, we sang the popular psalm 23 that narrates the abundance of goodness that would follow those who take the Lord as their shepherd. They shall never want, even if they walk in the valley of darkness, God will be there to protect them. God will prepare a table for them in the presence of their enemies. Their cup will overflow, goodness and mercy shall forever follow them.
These readings have much relevance for us because we all participate in being shepherds and equally being the sheep too. As priests, parents, teachers, leaders in the community, boss in our places of work, we have some shepherd roles to play in these places that we are in charge, even as Christians we are little shepherds to other Christians and non-Christians. We are called to imitate the compassion of Jesus. When Jesus had retired with His apostles to have some rest, the sight of the crowd like a sheep without a shepherd moved him into action. Like Christ, we are called to be moved into action, to pasture the flock of Christ wherever we are with our words, deeds and actions, we are not meant to scatter God’s children. We are meant to bring peace in the midst of Christ flock and not to shatter them into pieces and lead them to destruction.
Then from the other angle, we all are sheep that belong to this one-fold which has Christ as the chief shepherd, we are called to be good followers too. Taking our focus away from Christ the Good shepherd would be a disaster. The world itself is challenging with a lot of anti-gospel ideologies. For instance, imagine a sheep wandering in the Safari game reserve without any shepherd or protector, it will take just few minutes and the sheep will turn into a delicious, mouth-watering and succulent appetizer for the wild beasts. These wild cats will use the sheep for light refreshments before they get into more serious hunting.
In a similar way, the anti-gospel elements in our world attacks us fiercely when we lose track of Christ our shepherd and protector. We will simply get lost, we will lose our defenses. The evil one will then become victorious. St Peter admonishes us in 1st Peter 5:8, discipline yourself and keep alert because your enemy the devil is moving around like a roaring lion looking for some one to devour, stand up to him strong in faith. Brothers and sisters may we stand up in faith following Christ our good shepherd and equally being exemplary little shepherds to all those around us and under us.
