11th Sunday of the Year A
Father’s Day.
Today in the gospel Jesus looks at the crowds and feels sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus sees the plight of the people, empathizes with them and sends his disciples out to help them. What moved the heart of Jesus into action is the situation of the crowd who were abandoned. What does it mean to be abandoned?
To be abandoned is to have lost the leadership and authority that is required for human life to thrive. It is the loss of an authority that maintains a social order conducive for human development. It is the lack of an authority that guarantees the common good for all, the preservation of shared values and cherished memories. Abandonment represents a time of dehumanization, a culture of death, a spiritual hopelessness.
To be abandoned is to be forsaken and given up by those providing the basic needs of life. It also means loss of power to help oneself. Just as a field that is abandoned is quickly overrun by weeds and becomes unproductive. A building that is abandoned collapses in ruins. A domestic animal that is abandoned strays and dies. A wound that is abandoned festers and rots. Similarly a human being that is uncared for and unloved becomes lonely, hurting, despairing, vulnerable and dies.
Jesus looked at the crowds and saw that they were abandoned. They were no longer receiving the attention they deserve as human beings. No one considered them as having any value. Others had left them in their sad state and had stopped feeling responsible for them. Their rulers, those appointed to represent them and fend for them had stopped caring. There was a vacuum of authority, a yawning gap in the leadership of the people. The people were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.
Jesus’ reaction to the poor and most abandoned is the preferential option for the poor that Vatican II has taught. The Church is founded on the fundamental choice that Jesus made to identify and show solidarity with the poor, and intervene with their situation of abandonment. The apostles are sent on a mission to the abandoned, with power to lift the ban of neglect and dereliction from their shoulders. The apostles are the pillars of the Church, the foundations on which our life and work rests. That is why the fundamental option for the poor is for us a moral imperative today. We cannot be an apostolic church if we do not choose the poor and abandoned.
Today there is so much abandonment of the people. There are many who are harassed and dejected and like sheep without a shepherd. As an apostolic church we cannot turn a blind eye on them. We must be brave enough, like Jesus, to look at them and to be moved to help them. When we act like Jesus, using the power and authority given us through the apostles, and bring respite to the abandoned, we invite the ire of those who have abandoned them. They don’t want to see the people whom they have abandoned getting help, being healed, having their human dignity restored. Jesus got into trouble with the very powers that harassed the crowds and made them dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Today the Church too gets into trouble with those responsible for the harassment and dejection of the people. As long as we are following in the footsteps of Jesus and his apostles, we must endure resistance from those who work against the liberation of people.
Abandoned sheep cry out for a shepherd. Jesus is the good shepherd. God said in Ezekiel, I will shepherd my flock by myself. God has no kind words for those shepherds that abandon the sheep. Today we are celebrating Father’s Day. Fathers are shepherds of their families. If fathers are to be good shepherds of their families, they must have the mind and heart of Jesus Christ. Jesus taught that a good father does not give a stone when his child asks for bread, a snake when a child asks for a fish or a scorpion when the child asks for an egg. A good father gives good things to his children. This is the challenge of Jesus to fathers on this Father’s Day.
Fatherhood is not limited to the home, to one’s wife and children. To be a father is to be a responsible and legitimate authority in the life of others. To be a father is to be the author of growth, healing, freedom and dignity in others. Our civic leaders are our fathers. Our church leaders are our fathers. Our employers and other community leaders are our fathers. It behoves anyone entrusted by others as a father to act in their best interests.
Alas, many fathers do not measure up to the ideal of life giving presence in the lives of others. The real crisis at the heart of many of our problems today is a crisis of fatherhood. When you have a father who does not care, the family is abandoned. It can be the domestic family, the church family, or the national family. A family disintegrates and suffers much in the grip of an abusive father. Fathers who abuse are monsters. It is bad to be abused by an outsider, and it is even worse to be abused by one’s own father. A father who is not there is better that the father who remains there to oppress, to harass and to cause dejection and suffering.
As we celebrate this Father’s Day, let us look to the fatherhood of God as shown us by Jesus through his personal solicitude for the poor and abandoned and through his teaching. Jesus made himself a father to the crowd that was harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. He gave them the apostles to be their fathers in their plight. Jesus taught us that God is like the father of the prodigal son, who overlooks our many failings and strives for our life and well being. Jesus wants all fathers to be caring and supportive, not abandoning and harassing. Let us pray that our fathers, at home, at church, at work, at school, and in the nation, may be good fathers and good shepherds. Amen.
©Fr William Guri, C.Ss.R., St Gerard’s Church Borrowdale, Harare, 15/06/08.
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