Reflection for the 16th Sunday of the Year
He knows the numbers. Whether by mobile phone, or computer, he is never far away from the numbers of the stock market. And when he isn’t reading the numbers, he’s studying the reasons behind them and the prospects for new and higher numbers. My family’s security is his mantra -but as he becomes more familiar with the numbers in his portfolio, his wife and children have become strangers. The numbers he thinks secure his life have become his life. Money and wealth are my shepherd, there is nothing else that matters. ..
She was devastated. She had been done in, cheated, abused. Her hurt has hardened into anger. A shell seems to have grown around her. She trusts no one. She wallows in self-pity. She vows revenge. What he had done to her was despicable, there is no question of that -but what her anger is doing to her now is crippling. Anger and emotion are my shepherds; they lead me along the path of isolation and vengeance. ..
They are dedicated to the “cause.” Whatever is required, they give it their all. True believers. The cause becomes the focus of their lives. They have little tolerance for those who don’t understand or appreciate the issues involved -and even less for those who dare disagree with them. While their cause is noble and just, their zeal isolates them and creates a whole new, source of pain and alienation far more divisive and unjust as the “cause.” The cause is my shepherd, I am blind to everything else …
“Stage mothers” are not just the stuff of show business legend. “Stage mothers” -and “stage fathers” -are found in every place and in every field of endeavour. There are “stage” parents pushing, pushing, pushing their children to excel in everything from football to school work. They obsess over the child’s progress on the sports field, the science fair. These parents are so driven to make their child’s future a success that they miss the beauty and importance of the present. Obsession is my shepherd, leading me to dying fields of fame and fortune.
Truth be told, the real “shepherds” we follow are often balance sheets, emotions that take control of our lives. We seek affirmation, reassurance, support, comfort and approval in so many people and things that fail us: the latest, the newest, the hottest, the best-selling. We are sheep looking for a fail-safe, pop psychology, formula shepherd. But the lifestyles for which we sell our souls leave us all the poorer; the “shepherds” we herd after fail us. In Christ Jesus, God gives us a shepherd to guide us along the way of peace and justice, to seek not the empty riches of consumerism but the priceless treasure of compassion and reconciliation, to journey through our lives not in fear and self-interest but in the joy and certainty of what is right and just.
The challenge of the past couple of years required us to live our lives in new ways: a new emphasis on family, less obsessiveness about our jobs and careers, rediscovered gratitude for the simple, ordinary things of life that we had taken for granted. In some ways, this time has been a “deserted place” to recalibrate our lives; it’s been a time to rediscover love and friendship, empathy and joy in the things of God. So, while we’re happy to move beyond the horrible pandemic, may we continue to preserve the “deserted” places and times it afforded us to escape the demands of our calendars and things-to-do lists in order to re-centre our lives in the compassion and grace of God, to hear again the voice of Christ the Shepherd calling us to lives of joyful gratitude and fulfilling service. May we find those quiet places in our lives when we can listen to his voice and the strength and wisdom to follow him along his path.