Like sheep without a shepherd

SATURDAY 7 DECEMBER (Mt 9,35-10,1-6-8)

The Pastor over every other pastor, in the Old Testament, is the priest who teaches every son of Israel the will of God contained in his Word. The Pastor must be bound to the will of God contained in the Word as the tree to the earth. If he separates himself from the will of God contained in the Word, he is no longer a Shepherd according to God. Either he abandons his sheep to sin, to disobedience, to transgression, to immorality and to idolatry, or he uses sheep to feed himself. The Pastors were the true cause of the misleading of the people of God. In the prophet Hosea they are responsible for every moral, spiritual, economic, political and social disaster: “There is no fidelity, no mercy, no knowledge of God in the land. False swearing, lying, murder, stealing and adultery! in their lawlessness, bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, and everything that dwells in it languishes: The beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and even the fish of the sea perish. But let no one protest, let no one complain; with you is my grievance, O priests! You shall stumble in the day, and the prophets shall stumble with you at night; I will destroy your mother. My people perish for want of knowledge! Since you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you from my priesthood; Since you have ignored the law of your God, I will also ignore your sons. One and all they sin against me, exchanging their glory for shame” (Hos 4,1-7).

To these so severe words, those of the prophet Isaiah are added with which the Lord denounces a degradation never reached before: “All you wild beasts of the field, come and eat, all you beasts in the forest! My watchmen are blind, all of them unaware; They are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; Dreaming as they lie there, loving their sleep. They are relentless dogs, they know not when they have enough. These are the shepherds who know no discretion; Each of them goes his own way, every one of them to his own gain: “Come, I will fetch some wine; let us carouse with strong drink, And tomorrow will be like today, or even greater” (Is 56,9-12). When the shepherds reach these depths of immorality, for the people there is no hope of salvation. It is consumed by idolatry and immorality. Even in the time of Jesus the spiritual and moral condition of the people of God were very bad, again because of the pastors. Being scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, chief priests and elders of the people, all intent on looking after their personal glory, they did not care about the sheep entrusted to them. Indeed, they harassed them with their human traditions, made to pass for the Law of Moses and divine will. It was these pastors who wanted Jesus’ death by crucifixion.

Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness. At the sight of the crowds, 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 labourers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out labourers for his harvest.” Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd, the Beautiful Shepherd who takes at heart the care of the sheep that the Lord sends him every day. Not only that. He sends his disciples on a mission so that they show every man the great mercy with which the Lord God has decided to love his flock. What he asks them to do is what He is doing and for this he gives them the power to work signs and wonders. But the purpose of compassion is only one: convincing men that the kingdom of God is in their midst. However, everything will have to be lived with a new and virtuous lifestyle, wrapped in great gratuitousness. Thus preaching, working and living, they will become credible and men will be able to adhere to their call to conversion and thus enter the kingdom that comes.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints make us disciples of Jesus with the highly evangelical style.