Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)
2002 was an extraordinarily painful year for anyone involved in pastoral ministry in the Catholic Church in the United States. Early that year, the Boston Globe ran a series of articles describing a number of priests in that archdiocese who were accused of sexual abuse of children and teenagers – and describing how archdiocesan officials responded, or failed to respond, to the accusations. Even though stories of priests accused of sexual abuse of minors had been appearing here and there since the 1980’s, the Globe’s reports seemed like a bursting of a dam. Finally, it seemed, someone was listening to these stories of betrayal and violation and believing them. Soon, nearly every diocese was dealing with people who were accusing some of their priests of sexually abusing them when they were younger, and accusing bishops of knowing about this abuse but trying to conceal it or to simply move the accused priest to a different parish. It was difficult to know what hurt more: the realization that such abuse had actually happened (along with the tremendous pain it caused to the abused and their families), or the ways in which bishops tried to deny or cover up these situations.
In the wake of all this, dioceses have implemented policies not only to deal better with such accusations in the future, but to try to make Church-related places and events much safer for all involved. Many dioceses have made serious efforts to reach out to the victims of sexual abuse and offer healing. All the available evidence seems to show that these policies, when followed and enforced, make a real difference. We would like to think that this problem has been dealt with once and for all. Unfortunately, we still hear reports of Church leaders – priests, bishops, and even cardinals – who are accused of either being involved in sexual abuse themselves or of ignoring or covering up the sexual abuse that others were doing. Perhaps this is one of the evil spirits of which the Lord spoke when he said, “This kind can only be driven out by prayer and fasting”.
Although accusations of sexual abuse gain the most media attention, this is not the only way in which Church leaders may fail to live their calling. Not long ago, there was a story about a priest in a Midwestern diocese who was accused of stealing a huge amount of money from his parish over the last two decades in order to build a $5 million home where he would live upon retirement. Besides this, in any parish, one can hear stories of a priest, nun, or staff person who had been there some time ago who abused their position in some way or another.
In response to all this, one could say that all these accusations involve a minority of priests, and that most priests have not and are not doing such things. This is true, of course. However, if we rush to this response too quickly, we may miss at least one important lesson.
Even now, in the wake of all those accusations, priests are offered an enormous amount of trust simply because they are priests. People come to Mass with their spouses, children, and/or friends, trusting that priests will do their best to give them the word of God and not some kind of junk food that will be spiritually harmful to them. People come to priests in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, seeking guidance, encouragement, and mercy, and trusting that the priest will offer all three in the name of the Lord. Seminarians, when in parish assignments as a part of their formation, find that most parishioners offer them encouragement and respect.
Here’s the trap in all this.
Whenever anyone is given a position with such trust and respect, it can be too easy for the seminarian or priest to take it personally. In other words, to see it as about him and not about his calling or his ministry. Once someone begins to fall for that, then he is more vulnerable to the temptation to take advantage of his position. Most priests will not do the flagrant violations that I have mentioned already. The temptation will be to more subtle ways of using our role as priests, and the respect it still affords, for our personal benefit. The temptation will be to see “my parish” as meaning the same as “my pen” – as though we somehow owned our parishioners, rather than realizing that these are God’s people whose care is entrusted to us for the time being. We tell people how busy we are so that they will pity us. We are especially nice to wealthier members of our parishes so that they will be nice to us come Christmastime. Our homilies proclaim ourselves more than the Lord. Our lives begin to be more about our egos and less about the Lord. We will tell ourselves that we work hard and need (and even deserve) these personal benefits. The Lord in his mercy will rarely let this go for long without some challenge or warning, though. He will send someone to be a shepherd for the shepherd. The question is whether the priest is humble enough to hear, to acknowledge the sin, and to trust in the Lord more fully than before.
What I have said does not apply only to priests, or to anyone in Church ministry. It applies equally to anyone who is given a position of great trust and authority – be it a parent, or teacher, or boss, or political leader. Many people will face this temptation in some form or other.
This kind of problem is not new. We see how the Lord addressed a similar problem through Jeremiah in the first reading today. At this moment in history, the kingdom of Judah is on the brink of collapse. The Babylonians are drawing near, and they would soon conquer the land and destroy Jerusalem. Jeremiah does not give a “practical” explanation for this, such as the fact that Babylon was a larger empire with a more powerful army. The blame is placed squarely on the shepherds of Israel who have failed in their mission. These shepherds have misled the flock and caused them to scatter. The shepherds have cared for themselves and not for the sheep. Ezekiel, a younger contemporary of Jeremiah, would make similar prophecies while in exile in Babylon. If this last outpost of Israel was on the brink of collapse, it was because its shepherds trusted in themselves and not in God.
As a response, God promises through Jeremiah that he himself will intervene on behalf of his sheep. God will gather these scattered sheep together and appoint a new king, a true son of David who will shepherd these sheep wisely in God’s name. If the infidelity of the old shepherds caused Israel to be scattered, then the fidelity of this true shepherd would bring Israel back together again, and make Israel a beacon to draw the whole world to the Lord.
It is Jesus, of course, who is the Good Shepherd, the true Shepherd, the model Shepherd. The flock is his, and we are all a part of it. We are all members of his Body. If we want to know how shepherds whom the Lord sends should act, then we can look to how Jesus himself acts as Shepherd and learn from this. Our readings today give us some definite clues.
The shepherd draws people to the Lord, not himself.
The shepherds of Jeremiah’s time failed because it was all about them – their egos, their pleasures – and they took no thought of the sufferings of others in their care. In any organization, if the leader is in it only for himself or herself, the organization suffers and becomes more divided. The focus is on the leader’s persona and not on the mission of the group. In the same way, pastoral ministers in the Church serve the Lord and draw people to the Lord. At times, that may mean needing to say things that they would rather not say because their popularity may be at risk – but things that must be said if the people are to be called to a deeper union with the Lord. At other times, a priest may feel tempted to impose his personal spirituality on the parish as the ONLY way, thus forgetting that there are a number of perfectly valid spiritualities that all lead to the one Lord.
The shepherd offers encouragement to the people assigned to his care.
As we read in today’s psalm, Psalm 23: “Even though I walk in the dark valley, I fear no evil, for you are at my side with your rod and your staff that give me courage”. A shepherd should carefully observe the people assigned to his case, looking for signs of the Holy Spirit’s activity among them and then seek to encourage and promote it. Although a shepherd may need to challenge his people out of love and concern, his predominant mode of dealing with them should be encouragement. They face many challenges in their lives. The shepherd should assume the best of his people – that they are sincerely trying to discern the Lord’s will and follow it in their lives – rather than give the impression that he sees them basically as sinners who do NOT want to be faithful to the Lord. You will not help a seedling to grow if you subject it to frost. It needs warm sunshine, soft rains and cool earth.
The shepherd ultimately leads people to God’s rest.
Again, we look to Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; in verdant pastures he gives me repose.” But note as well our Gospel reading. The apostles have just returned from their first missionary assignment and tell Jesus all that they did and taught. Jesus then invites them to come away with him and rest for a while. They sail to the other side of the lake, but encounter more people there who seek Jesus. Note that Jesus does not call his apostles out of their rest. Instead, Jesus himself attends to the crowd and teaches them. The apostles have done wonders beyond their capacity because of Jesus, but they remain human beings who need nourishment and rest. Jesus does not demand of them what they cannot give, physically or psychologically. Any shepherd who ministers in Jesus’ name will have a like concern for those in his care, especially those who assist him in his ministry.
But there is more going on than physical or psychological rest. Jesus invites his apostles to enter into God’s own rest, which is what the sabbath rest is meant to symbolize.
What is this rest that is offered to us? The Scriptures first refer to it in the context of the Exodus. The Israelites are slaves in Egypt. God acts to free them and to bring them to a Promised Land. The Scriptures see this slavery in Egypt as symbolizing the various things that can enslave us, as individuals and as a people: egocentric concerns, fears, hatreds, jealousies, anxieties and many others that can lead to sins of all kinds. These forces divide and oppress us as individuals and as a people. Not only that, but we also suffer the consequences of our own sins and those of others.
We begin to approach God’s rest when we place our faith totally in the Lord – even if we are led to a place that feels like an inhospitable desert. We hear the Lord’s words and give ourselves over to him. Then, first in hints and then in more evident ways, we begin to experience signs of God’s rest, a rest that we will know in its fullness after death, when we are with the Lord forever. It is the task of our human shepherds to recognize what stage of the Exodus journey we are on and encourage us to take the next steps in faith.
What is God’s rest like? If a failure to trust in the Lord leaves us scattered and divided, then the Lord’s rest means that we are drawn together and in harmony. It is like the feeling of getting into some hobby or pastime we really enjoy, whether alone or with friends and family – or the feeling of being drawn into a good book. We are drawn out of our own cares, our of our egos, and into this object of our interest. Time flies by. We feel somehow more whole for having done this. Something similar may happen to us in times of prayer. This is only a taste of what the Lord means when he offers us rest. It is not “doing nothing”; it is being invited into the “play” of God, as Wisdom declares: “When he fixed the foundations of earth, then I was beside him as an artisan; I was his delight day by day, playing before him all the while, playing over the whole of his earth, having my delight with human beings.” (Proverbs 8:29-31)
The shepherd, then, leads others to God’s rest by dwelling there himself. He cannot help but exude God’s own joy. His greatest delight comes from being beside the Lord as an artisan, like a child who plays before the Lord, knowing that it is the Lord who accomplishes all he has done (Isaiah 26:12). The shepherd takes delight in being with the people God has entrusted to him. The shepherd takes delight in sharing with them all that the Lord has given him. There can be no greater joy, no better taste of God’s own rest.
The challenge for us now as Catholic Christians is simply this: how can we encourage our shepherds – and how can our shepherds encourage one another – to have such faith in the Lord and, from this faith, to become people of rest and joy?