Today we are going to spend our time unpacking our 1st reading where we gain a deeper understanding of God calling shepherds to guide his people, Jeremiah is prophesying at a time when Jerusalem was about to be taken over by the Babylonians- this would be last time the great Temple city would belong to the Jews.  Jeremiah was lamenting over the kings of Israel who have not protected or cared for God’s people and have thus let the capital city be overrun and God’s people to be scattered.  And he warns them that God will hold them accountable for not being a good shepherd or king.  God was saddened that the kings did not rule His people the way He had appointed them to, and God was saddened that His people are going to be scattered once again.

But God, through his spokesman, Jeremiah, says something revolutionary at that time.  He says that God himself will “gather a remnant of my flock from all the lands and bring them back to their meadow, there they will increase and multiply”.  A remnant is a small group, so God himself will gather a small group of Jews together again and bring them back to the land of Jerusalem, and then they will be able to increase and multiply once again.  God promises to intervene and bring his people back to himself, but what is striking is that He will do it Himself and not through shepherds like He has done in the past.  Jeremiah then goes on to say that only after God Himself has gathered a remnant, then He will appoint shepherds who will shepherd His people so that they need no longer fear and tremble; and none shall be missing”. 

Then towards the end of the 1st reading, Jeremiah prophesies that “the days are coming when God will raise up a righteous shoot to David, as king he shall reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land”.  You remember David, the youngest and smallest of sons, a shepherd boy, who knew the Lord and was “a man after God’s own heart”, whom God raised up to become the great king and leader of His people.  It is under David’s reign was the Kingdom of God the largest and most united up to that point, and through David there began a time of great peace.  So Jeremiah is telling the people that the new king who would gather and lead them would be God Himself, however Jeremiah also prophesied that the new king would be a descendent of David.  They must have been confused, would it be God himself or would it be a descendent of David that would lead them home?  Only in God’s mind could it be both.  What God is saying through this prophesy is that soon God Himself will begin to gather a remnant of his people once again, but He will do so as one who is an offshoot of the great king and leader, David.  Only in God could one be the Son of God but also be a son of David.

In retrospect this makes sense, as we now know God’s great plan.  God sent His Son, Jesus into the world.  The Jewish people knew that Jesus was a descent of David.  Throughout the Gospels this is confirmed over and over again.  We can think of the genealogy of Jesus in the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel- how Matthew shows 14 generations from Abraham to David, another 14 generations from David to the Babylonian exile (the time in which our 1st reading is written), and another final 14 generations from the exile to Jesus Christ.  Or one can also remember the Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation telling Mary, that Jesus will be given the throne of David his father and his reign will have no end.  Or the blind man, Bartimaeus, crying out, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me”.  And who can forget Jesus riding into Jerusalem like a king with palm branches, just the way King David did.  So throughout the Gospels, Jesus is depicted as a son of David. 

But yet, we know that Jesus is fully human and also fully divine, as the Son of God.  Jesus is conceived in a miraculous way to a virgin.  As an adult performs many miracles, something only God could do.  For example we can think of what Jesus says to the Paralytic man, ‘your sins are forgiven’ but the people wondered ‘who but God can forgive sins’.  And at the calming of the storm, ‘who but God alone can calm the winds and the waves?’  So throughout the Gospels, it is clear that Jeremiah’s prophesy saying that God Himself will gather a remnant, but do so as a descendent of David is fulfilled.  Jesus is the Son of God foreseen by the prophets, and as the Davidic king through whom God himself will rule His people.

Our Gospel today also partly reveals how our 1st reading prophesy is fulfilled.  Remember, Jeremiah says that God Himself will gather a remnant, a small group of his people back to their land where they will grow once again.  Our Gospel begins, ‘the apostles gathered together with Jesus’.  Who are the apostles, but the remnant that God said he would gather?  The 12 apostles are the remnant of the 12 tribes of God’s people who were scattered amongst the land.  You might remember last week our Gospel revealed that Jesus sent His apostles two by two with the authority to make present the forgiveness and healing of God.  In fact, the word ‘apostle’ means to be sent.  Just as God the Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world on a mission to gather His scattered people, so Jesus chose and sent His apostles to continue the mission and gather his people back to Himself. 

What I find amazing is that God could have said, no more shepherds, they have disappointed Him one too many times.  He could of said, I am tired of appointing shepherds only to have them take care of themselves instead of my people.  I will send my Son, and that will have to be enough, they will have to hear about, believe, and follow my Son then’.    Instead, after Jesus’s reign on earth, God still sent shepherds.  Throughout the gospels we see that Jesus chose fishermen and tax collectors, to follow him.  Repeatedly, we see that ordinary and sinful people are selected.  God chose and drew them close to Himself, he let them see first-hand the love, the power, and the mercy of God for his people.  As our 2nd reading begins, “in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have become near by the blood of Christ”.  God chose and sent sinful human beings to be the shepherds of His people.  But He did so calling them to remain in Him.  In our Gospel, Jesus says to his apostles after they had come back from their first mission, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while”.  But our Gospel goes on to say, that the needy people had followed the Apostles, and when they went off to the deserted place, the people went and met them there.  They were a people in need, like sheep without a shepherd; they were a people longing for the love and mercy that the Apostles had proclaimed.  They were so hungry for it that they followed the Apostles to Jesus, for the people wanted what Jesus could offer them. 

My brothers and sisters, people today are still needy and longing.  They are not going to be satisfied with what the world offers and are longing for true happiness and fulfillment.  Many are lost, some are still longing to be led, longing for the guidance of a shepherd.  And so God continues to call shepherds to guide and care for His people. He calls you and I, out of our comfort zones, convicted in the love and mercy of God to lead them to Himself.  Although I am not worthy, he has called me to shepherd Corpus Christi parish.  It is for this reason that when I was installed Pastor, as part of the Oath of Fidelity, I signed, “In fulfilling the charge entrusted to me in the name of the Church, I shall hold fast to the deposit of faith in its entirety, I shall faithfully hand it on and explain it, and I shall avoid any teachings opposed to that faith”.  You parents, God has called you, he has chosen you to be the shepherds of your children and lead them to Himself.  What kind of shepherds are you being right now?  Each of us, from our baptism, is chosen and sent to reveal to others the love and mercy of God and bring them back to Himself.  How are you doing in your mission?  The nearer we draw to and remain in Christ, the better shepherd we will be.

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