Deacon Tom Writes,
“The Good Shepherd”
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
God has a plan for our lives and it’s a good plan. And like any good plan, it’s designed to achieve the intended result. That is, of course, if you follow the plan! The trouble is that at some point along the way most of us get tired of following the plan. Any plan! And that goes for plan God has laid out for us. We get distracted, tired, board or, most of the time we just think that we have a better plan and we start doing things our way. We know what happens, don’t we? We all have our horror stories, our bumps and bruises, and many regrets, don’t we?
Jeremiah has to contend with some shepherds who have abandoned the plan God designed for them. As shepherds they were not protecting their flock. To the contrary, they were exposing them to the very dangers they should have been protecting them from. God sees this and will not stand for such an outrage. What does God do? He promises to send a real shepherd, to tend and care for his sheep, so that they no longer live in fear or be at risk, and to gather those who have strayed.
We know, of course, that Jesus is the promised Shepherd that Jeremiah foretold. Does Jesus live up to the standards that Jeremiah prophesied about him? Very much so! Even a cursory reading of the four gospels provides ample evidence that Jesus is the “Good Shepherd”. For so often we read where Jesus teaches his followers not to be afraid and that he cares for the people God has entrusted to him, curing them of their sickness, physical, spiritual, and mental; he feeds them physical and spiritual nourishment; he dispels the darkness by teaching them about the Kingdom of Heaven and about a life of virtue. And when things take a turn for the worse, he even dies for them, even those who did him wrong! Jesus fulfills Jeremiah’s prophesy beyond imagination!
Is Jesus our “Good Shepherd”? Does he calm our fears? Nourish us? Protect us? Provide for our needs? Did his death save us? Does our relationship with him change the course or events of our life?
In today’s gospel, the “Good Shepherd” that Jeremiah prophesied would one day appear, calls his followers “to come away by themselves to a deserted place for a while”. There, within our deepest fiber of our being, we can encounter the “Good Shepherd” and perhaps get to know him better and thank him for his guidance, protection and care.
Enjoy the Day!
Deacon Tom
Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacons engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those thinking of coming into or walking away from the Church.
OTHER RESOURCE
Recommended Reading: New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy Paperback. With the incredible popularity of recent books championing agnosticism or atheism, many people might never know that such books almost completely ignore the considerable evidence for theism uncovered in both physics and philosophy over the past four decades. New Proofs for the Existence of God responds to these glaring omissions.
Recommended YouTube Video: How Science Supports Belief in the Spiritual World w/Fr. Robert Spitzer | Chris Stefanick Show. Fr. Spitzer is back, and he has even MORE ways that science supports belief in God. This time, he’s talking about scientific evidence for the supernatural world.
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