Well, here it is: the middle of the summer. Once again, it’s vacation time. So, today’s questions are about vacations. How many of you are making vacation plans to get away in the next few weeks? How many have already taken a vacation? And how many of you, who’ve already gone, need another vacation to recover from the first one? Every year we plan to have a real “vacation.” We hope to really get away from it all, to find some peace and quiet, to get some “vacant” time, some “blank” or “empty” time when we can really relax. But we don’t seem to succeed.
Today’s gospel reading tells us Jesus and his disciples didn’t have much luck either. They tried to get away for some well-earned R&R, but what did they find? More lost sheep! For the next few minutes, I’d like to consider some other lost, or at least, confused sheep. Not real sheep, but imaginary ones. Ones like the sheep we count late at night, in our heads. I would, also, like to consider some imaginary shepherds who drive our imaginary sheep.
What made me think about shepherds and sheep for today’s homily? It was, of course, today’s first reading from Jeremiah, which begins: “Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pastures.” Now, actually Jeremiah was talking about false prophets and false leaders who were trying to stir up a revolt in Judea and Israel against foreign domination. These were the so-called shepherds Jeremiah was criticizing. But, the ones I want to talk about are the false shepherds inside of me, inside of you.
To begin, let’s pretend my emotions, my feelings, are little, bleating sheep. I look down, into myself and see a fuzzy, little critter called “sense of humor.” And over there, in the middle of the pasture is a white, wooly fellow called “courage.” The one in between, chewing grass, is “patience.” And that big, black sheep over in the corner of the meadow is “anger.” Do you get the picture? Can you see your own sheep? What names do your sheep have?
Now what about the false shepherds? The ones who drive the sheep, who try to control my emotions, my feelings. They’re standing around too. I can see the shepherd whose name is “job problems.” Nearby is “financial trouble.” Then there is “family strife.” Close by, is the shepherd called “keeping busy.” My interior false shepherds have many names. There are many things which drive the sheep of my emotions. Only you can name the ones in your pasture.
I would invite you to close your eyes and name your own sheep and your own shepherds as I read, again, lines from Jeremiah. “Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture … You have not cared for [my sheep] … I myself will gather the remnant of my flock … and bring them back to their meadow.”
The question now becomes: how will the Lord God do this? To answer this, perhaps we need to take another look at the gospel reading for today. But first, it might be good to begin by recalling last Sunday’s gospel. Last Sunday, we heard how Jesus had sent out his disciples to teach in his name. And now, in today’s reading, his disciples have returned. They’re all excited about what they’ve been doing and are eager to tell him of their adventures. But what about Jesus? It seems he’s not nearly as excited with their results as they are. Instead of congratulating them on a job well-done, he says: “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place, [an out-of-the-way place,] and rest a while.”
And they do try to escape the people who have crowded around so tightly that the disciples can’t even eat. They try to escape from the problems of the world, but those problems follow them. It seems that when the disciples tried to take their vacation, their problems, the people they had been ministering to, not only followed them, they even got there ahead of them!
We, who are today’s followers of Jesus, try to escape from our problems, but somehow we can’t seem to. Our problems not only follow us, they sometimes precede us. It would seem that there’s little hope for us. But yet there is hope for us. For two reasons: first of all, there is Jesus’ gentle urging: “Come away [with me.]” He didn’t say: “Go off alone” but rather “Come.” You will be with me, and I will be with you. And secondly, he took pity on the scattered flock of confused sheep he found waiting for him. And what did he do when he found them?
He taught them. And what did he teach them? I believe today’s reading from Saint Paul reminds us of what he taught. On one level, Paul reminds us how we are all united together by Christ. He spoke of both pagan-born Christians who were once far off and of Jewish Christians who have been near. But on another level, there is both a pagan Christian and a Jewish Christian inside of each one of us. There are parts of me waiting to be united into one body, one whole person. There is part of me that is far off from the Lord. There is another part of me that is near to him.
Now, let’s return for a moment to that imaginary pasture inside of us. Some of our sheepish emotions and feelings are running off. “Patience” gets butted by “anger,” the shepherd called “financial trouble” chases the lamb called “prudence” away to hide behind a bush. The false shepherd “job problems” shears the wool off of “courage” and leaves him cold and shivering. The shepherd of “family strife” tweaks the tail of “harmony.”
Yet in all this chaos, this mad scramble, there is still one true Shepherd, one Good Shepherd who is mightier than all of the false shepherds inside of me. He leads forth all of the sheep of my internal pasture. He quiets and gentles them. All I need to do is come away with him. Even if our problems seem to follow us or precede us, he is there. When our sheep, our emotions, are scattered and confused, he, alone, can gather them back into one-fold, one warm, peaceful meadow. In him, our sheep can find their rest. With him, we do not take a so-called vacation. We do not need to become “vacant” or “empty.” With him, we find recreation or, if you will, a “re-creation.”
And so, as we enter the middle of our summer, a time to ponder our desire for recreation, our need for “re-creation,” our need to go off to greener pastures for a while, I’d leave you with three questions to ponder:
● What are the names of your own inner sheep?
● Who are the false shepherds who scatter them?
● And finally, are you ready to hear the voice of your one, true shepherd saying to you, “Come with me to an out-of-the-way place and rest a while”?
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time; July 21, 1985, July 23, 2006 (revised)
Jer 23:1-6; Eph 2:13-18; Mk 6:30-34