Commentary

Friday, 6/28/2019, Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

God Will Tend His Sheep

First Reading Commentary: Ezekiel 34:11-16

The prophet Ezekiel tells us that God will look after and tend His sheep, rescue the scattered sheep from cloudy and dark places and lead them back to their own country and give them rest. God will seek out those who have strayed, bind up those who are injured and heal those who are sick. But God will destroy the sleek and the strong.

Ezekiel was prophesizing Christ who is the Good Shepherd and we are His sheep. God promised to take care of His sheep and lead them to the good pastures of Israel. When Christ, God the Son, came on earth, He promised the Kingdom of Heaven which is the New Jerusalem and only He can fulfill the promise made in Ezekiel’s prophecy.

God constantly reminds us that He wants all of us to be with Him in the Kingdom. Through Ezekiel’s prophecy, God promises to do all He can to lead us there. When we fall into sin; we stray away, become injured and sick. God promises to seek us out, mend our injuries and heal us. God uses the Word and the sacraments as His staff to pull us back. All of the sacraments fill us with God’s grace. The Word and the Eucharist nourish us and Confession heals us.

God promises that the Kingdom will be a place of rest. No longer will we have to fight and struggle with the problems, temptations and evilness of the world because in heaven, there will be peace and all we have to do to enjoy that peace is; follow our Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

But when we refuse to be rescued by kicking and fighting and forcing our way out of the hook of the staff, God will destroy us. Our resistance will put us among the sleek sheep thinking that we are strong enough to not need God.

Lucifer thought that he was so great that he did not have to follow God and look at what he got for his troubles. That is exactly what Ezekiel prophesizes for those who refuse to listen to God.

What More Can God Do?

Second Reading Commentary: Romans 5:5b-11

The long and short of St. Paul’s message today is that God loves us so much that He sent the Son to die for our sins. Not just some of us, but all of us. But St. Paul also poses this question, “How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath?”

St. Paul’s question is a warning and that warning is consistent with what Ezekiel warned in his prophesy. St. Paul is telling us that God does everything He can for us but if we choose not to follow Him, it is our choice and our problem—not God’s.

Don’t Be Left Out

Gospel Commentary: Luke 15:3-7

Jesus told the Pharisees and scribes the parable of the Lost Sheep. He asked them, “What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine…and go after the lost one until he finds it? And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy…calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you…there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.”

Sometimes, I have to sit back and really meditate on the way Jesus uses words to make a point. The serious and obvious message here is that Christ will come after us to lead us home if we stray. But there is another message here which is no less serious and the way that Jesus presents it, makes me; stop and think.

How many people can make a list of one hundred people and come up with ninety-nine people on that list; who are righteous people who do not need to repent? I’m talking about a list of one hundred people with just one sinner. I can’t and I don’t think that anyone else can either. For that matter, I can’t make a list with one righteous person on it who does not need to repent. That’s because we are all sinners! That includes me!

The best of us will slip and fall from time to time. I do every day, no matter how menial the slip may be, I do slip and sometimes, I fall flat on my face. Don’t sit there reading this commentary and tell me that you never slip or fall. All of us do. 

But here comes a great big smile thanks to God's love for us. I smile in appreciation for our Lord and Savior, the Good Shepherd. Jesus will have a lot of joy when He puts us on His shoulders and takes us home.  It's a good thing that Jesus has big shoulders because He has a lot of sheep to carry and I don’t plan on being left out.

Reading 1          Ezekiel 34:11-16

Thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will look after and tend my sheep.
As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep.
I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark.
I will lead them out from among the peoples and gather them from the foreign lands; I will bring them back to their own country and pasture them upon the mountains of Israel in the land's ravines and all its inhabited places.
In good pastures will I pasture them, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing ground.
There they shall lie down on good grazing ground, and in rich pastures shall they be pastured on the mountains of Israel.
I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest, says the Lord GOD.
The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy, shepherding them rightly.

Responsorial Psalm          Psalm 23:1-6

R. (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose; beside restful waters he leads me; he refreshes my soul.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

He guides me in right paths for his name's sake.
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.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

You spread the table before me in the sight of my foes; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for years to come.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

Reading 2          Romans 5:5b-11

Brothers and sisters: The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
For Christ, while we were still helpless, died at the appointed time for the ungodly.
Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die.
But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath.
Indeed, if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
Not only that, but we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Gospel          Luke 15:3-7

Jesus addressed this parable to the Pharisees and scribes:"What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, 'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep. 'I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance."