Homily: August 21, 2024, Wednesday of the twentieth week in Ordinary time (Holy family school Mass )

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“For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will look after and tend my sheep.”

At the end of the first reading, in which the prophet Ezekiel spoke to the people on behalf of God, saying that God will look after and tend His sheep Himself, that means He will never leave His precious sheep to anybody else.

How many of you have pets at home?

Do you love them and care for them?

If you were going away for a long, long vacation, would you leave your pets with me to care for them?

I used to have a pet cow when I was a little boy in India. Her name was Mannikutti. She was a newly born calf when she was first given to me. Every day after school, I would go to her, talk to her, feed her, clean her and just spend time with her. I love her very much! I would know if she was sick, just by the way she ate her food. And she would respond to me happily whenever I talked to her. And I was always very happy spending time with her. I know her very well because I am always with her, observing her and taking care of her.

Years later when I was older, and she too has grown older, someone came to my farm and my papa had to sell her away, because we could not keep her anymore.

I was so sad. I cried. I worried if her new master would take good care of her and if she would miss me too. To this day, I still remember and miss her. 

In the Bible, the people of God are referred to as the sheep and Jesus is the good Shepherd.

I used to wonder why God didn’t use any other animal like cows, cats, or dogs when telling the people in those days about His relationship with them.

There could be a few reasons. First, the early Jews were familiar with sheep and shepherding. King David was a shepherd boy before he became king. So, using this analogy, the people would understand better.

Second, sheep are very poor with direction, they do not know how to find their way back if they were to get lost while grazing grass.

Third, once a sheep goes away from the sheepfold, wild animals can attack them easily and sheep are too meek and gentle, they cannot fight back or defend themselves.

Thus, they need a good and caring shepherd to look after them, search for them if they are lost and protect them when wild animals are nearby.

God looks at us and sees that we are like them. We may think we are intelligent and strong and fearless, but spiritually, we cannot defend ourselves against the devil. We are like sheep; we need a good shepherd to take care of us. We are weak; we need Jesus, our Good Shepherd.

Spiritually, if we stray away from the community, away from church and think we don’t need God, that is when the devil will attack us, often even without us knowing. Our life can become messy and empty, confusing and painful, we can even end up depressed and lost. We might even lose heaven.

Our response in the responsorial psalm today is, “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.”

When we stay close to God our shepherd, we will be well taken care of, all our real needs will be satisfied. When we have God in our life, we have everything we truly need. Just like how you take good care of your pets if you love them. 

God knows what we need and what we are going through in life, and He is always reminding us not to walk away from Him, to always stay with Him and listen to Him. He will walk with us, guide us and protect us if we come to Him.

He is our God, we are His sheep, He Himself will look after us and tend to us. God is our shepherd, there is nothing we shall want.

Amen.


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