Ezekiel 34:1-11
Matthew 20:1-16
How do you exercise power? How do we use our authority in relation to others? Do we use them to help others? To offer comfort, support and encouragement? Or do we use them only for our own benefit, even if that means treating others unjustly?How do we account for stewardship that God has given to us?
These questions arise naturally from today’s first reading taken from the Book of Ezekiel. The prophet announces a word of righteous judgment against the “shepherds of Israel,” because instead of watching over and protecting the “sheep”. They were “feeding and pasturing themselves,” using their position to ravage and exploit, crushing the people they were given to safeguard, protect and serve in order to promote and advance themselves.
In their greed and lust for luxury, these false and pernicious leaders were completely complacent and insensitive to the sufferings and needs of their people. As the prophet vehemently chastises: “You did not strengthen the weak nor heal the sick nor bind up the wounded. You did not bring back the strayed nor seek the lost, but you lorded it over them harshly and brutally.”
Nothing expresses more dramatically the wickedness and evil of these gluttony perverse shepherds than the prophet’s closing judgment that the sheep were being devoured by the very ones who should be looking after them. What might Ezekiel’s chilling words mean for us? The sheep are anyone who is poor, needy, exploited or victimized. They are the lonely, hopeless, loveless or lost. Anyone among us who suffers and is in need, anyone who longs for healing and consolation, are sheep yearning to be comforted and assisted, rescued and reassured.
Each day we are called to be good shepherds and good sheep too because every one of us has the crucial responsibility to live on the lookout for all who are in need of help, healing, and hope. One of the earliest description of Christin the early Church was the Good Shepherd. The famous Church’s psalm of prayer Psalm 23, is a psalm of trust and confidence in the Lord who gives us rest and peace, and cast away our anxieties and fears. Like Jesus, the good shepherd, each day we are summoned to bless, build up, and be virtuous in any way we can. Like the landowner in today’s gospel story, we know it is never too late in the day to help someone in need. It is never too late!
Fr. Osho
Credit:
This article is written by Rev Fr. Joseph Osho OSJ. Please visit his personal blog @ https://www.blogger.com/profile/10377666931103644634
For juicier articles.
