Sixteenth Sunday in OT ‘B’

Today’s readings explain how God, like a good shepherd, redeems His people and provides for them. They also challenge us to use our God-given authority in the family, in the Church and in society, with fidelity and responsibility. Today, pastoral ministry includes not only the pastoral care given by those named or ordained as “pastors” but the loving service given by all Christians who follow different callings to serve and lead others.

In the First Reading, the prophet Jeremiah (6th century B.C.), thunders against Israel's careless leaders - the king, some priests, and some court prophets – because they have shown no concern for the poor. The Prophet also foretells the rise of a good, new shepherd in the family line of David. Then he consoles the Israelites enslaved in Babylon, by assuring them that God will lead them back to their original pasture in Israel.

Today’s Good Shepherd Psalm (Ps 23) affirms David’s faith and trust in God, the “Good Shepherd.”

The Second Reading introduces Jesus as the shepherd of both the Jews and the Gentiles and explains how Jesus, the Good Shepherd, reconciled all of us with His Father by offering Himself on the cross. Paul also speaks about reconciliation between the Jews and the Gentiles, brought about by Jesus Who has accepted both into the same Christian brotherhood.

The reading from the Gospel of Mark presents Jesus as the Good Shepherd fulfilling God’s promise given through His Prophet Jeremiah in the First Reading. Here we see Jesus attending to His worn out apostles, who have just returned from their first preaching mission, while at the same time expressing his concern for the people who, like “sheep without a shepherd,” have gathered to meet Him in the wilderness.

The Christian life is a continuous passage from the presence of God to the presence of people and back again. Prayer is essentially listening to God and talking to Him. We should allow God the opportunity to speak to us and recharge us with spiritual energy and strength by setting aside enough time for Him to speak to us and for us to speak to Him. He speaks to us powerfully when we spend some time every day reading the Bible and meditating on the message that God gives us. We receive strength from God to do our share of the shepherd’s preaching and healing ministry by praying to Him individually, in the family and as a community, in the parish Church participating in the Eucharistic celebration.

There is no Christianity without the proclamation of the Gospel. Teaching the Word of God is essential to a Christian community. We must also display the compassion of Jesus by meeting the social and material needs of others by our works of charity as individually and as a parish community.