Sheep Without A Shepherd

06-18-2023Weekly ReflectionFr. Manasseh Iorchir, VC

Let me begin by wishing all fathers a Happy Father’s Day! The Gospel reading this weekend is quite timely. It presents Jesus as a father. We are told that Jesus looked at the crowd coming to Him, and His heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” What an image that describes the situation of fatherhood in our society today. The joy of fatherhood is facing unprecedented challenges in our time. One can hardly talk about fathers these days without sounding “old fashioned” or off ending someone. We have seen, and studies have shown, that the absence of fathers, or father-figures, in a family has a signifi cant negative impact on the emotional, social, spiritual, and psychological development of many children leading to increasing stress, drug abuse, suicide ideation, and crime among young people. We have many young people in our society today who are like sheep without a shepherd.

In responding to the people’s deepest need and longing for God in their lives, Jesus appointed twelve Apostles and sent them out to go and attend to everyone in their neighborhood. Like the Apostles, we are also called by Jesus and He sends us out to go and minister to others around us. The Vatican II document on the missionary life of the Church, Ad Gentes, emphasizes on this task entrusted to us by Jesus when it states that every Catholic is called to be a missionary. We often have fear and doubt about our ability to preach the Gospel to others around us. The Apostles felt the same way, too. Jesus knows that in mission we have to contend with the forces of the secular society around us, the dangerous political leaders, and spiritual forces of evil against us. He therefore equipped us beforehand with power and authority over every human and spiritual challenge we may encounter in the work of spreading God’s kingdom of peace and love.

We may also wonder about how and where to start from in playing our roles as missionaries at our own levels. Learning from the Gospel today, we see how Jesus instructed the Apostles to start with “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6), that is, to start from familiar territory. Later on he would commission them to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19), but for now they are to limit their outreach to within their own people. Like the Apostles, we are also invited to begin our missionary journey from within our families, to the neighborhood and the wider society. Looking at the urgent needs around us today, a good place to start could be to reach out to the lapsed and lukewarm Catholics in our own families and neighborhood to revive their faith and bring them back to the Church.

Fr. James