16th Sunday, Year B: Homily by Fr Isaac Chima

Theme: Message to all shepherds of God’s flock

Reading: Jer 23:1–6; Eph 2:13–18; Mk 6:30–34

Dear friends in Christ, on this sixteenth Sunday of the year, the Church has a message for all shepherds of the flock of God. But the question we should ask is: who are the shepherds of God’s flock or shepherds of God’s children?

The shepherds of the children of God in the Church are the priests and all those who preach or teach the word of God in the church. Then, the shepherds of God’s children in the families are the parents, grandparents, uncles and aunties, and all those under whose care children grow up in the family. Therefore, today’s message to shepherds touches both the shepherds in the church and those in the families.

In the first place, we thank shepherds who bring up God’s children according to the will of God, those who guide and feed God’s children with what God intended so that they will not be lost. However, the rate at which many children are growing up with little or no faith in God and lack of good moral behaviour in the society calls for proper examination on how well the shepherds of our time are doing their duties. In today’s gospel, our Lord Jesus looked at the people of Israel that followed Him and said they were like sheep without a shepherd.

Indeed, there is no better way to describe the condition of many youths of our time than to say that they are living as if they never had shepherds in their lives; many of them lack the capacity to distinguish between what is good and what is bad, and as a result, they swing from one erroneous ideology about life to another; many of them lack good moral values and care less about holy life, respect for people, and family or societal values; many of them have shallow faith in God, little or no respect for God and prayer life, and for that reason, they don’t care about attending Masses on Sundays and see nothing wrong about it.

The religious and social life of many youths raise doubts about how serious their shepherds were with their training/upbringing. One thing that is certain is that shepherds who do not train their children in good moral and spiritual life will regret it as their children grow into adults, because youths who do not respect God and other people will not respect their parents too.

In the first reading of today, God warned all the shepherds who have failed in their duties of taking good care of the sheep entrusted to them, and the shepherds who are still failing in their responsibilities to give good upbringing to their children and wards. He said He will treat them according to their deeds. Then, He promised that He will send a shepherd that will give them the care they need. Dear friends, this is a warning to all of us to be very careful with the kind of formation we give to our children. If we do not form them well, we will attract the anger and punishment of God. In fact, God will judge us according to the kind of formation we gave to our children.

In the gospel of today, we saw this shepherd sent by God, Jesus Christ, tending to the sheep that have been scattered by those who were supposed to be their shepherds, and also showing us one of the qualities of a good shepherd. Jesus was heading to a place to rest his head, but when He saw the helpless people, he had compassion on them and sacrificed His comfort to make sure He lifted them from their misery. A good shepherd in the church and in the family must be compassionate in his relationship with those entrusted to his care and must sacrifice his comfort, must give his all, for the good of the sheep. He must be close to the sheep so that he can know them and provide their needs even at the expense of his own comfort. We must provide the material, spiritual and moral needs of our children, even when doing so will lead to insults and misunderstanding from the people.

Finally, the second reading of today showed us another quality of the Good Shepherd, which is that of restoring what has been damaged by wicked shepherds. Wicked shepherds created enmity between God’s people, but Jesus, our Good Shepherd, restored peace between them with His death. So, good shepherds of God’s children have the duty of restoring/correcting what has been damaged in the life of their children by the secular society; they have the duty to fish out the wrong teachings that society has imparted on their children and correct/fix them for the good of their families.

Happy Sunday, dear friends

Fr Isaac Chima