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| “The Vigil of the Shepherds (detail)” by Benozzo Gozzoli, 1459-60 |
Readings and Commentary:[3]
Reading 1: Isaiah
40:1-11
Comfort, give comfort to my
people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem
that her service is at an
end,
her guilt is expiated;
Indeed, she has received from
the hand of the LORD
double for all her sins.
A voice cries out:
In the desert prepare the way
of the LORD!
Make straight in the
wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be filled
in,
every mountain and hill shall
be made low;
The rugged land shall be made
a plain,
the rough country, a broad
valley.
Then the glory of the LORD
shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it
together;
for the mouth of the LORD has
spoken.
A voice says, “Cry out!”
I answer, “What shall I cry
out?”
“All flesh is grass,
and all their glory like the
flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower
wilts,
when the breath of the LORD
blows upon it.
So then, the people is the
grass.
Though the grass withers and
the flower wilts,
the word of our God stands
forever.”
Go up onto a high mountain,
Cry out at the top of your
voice,
Fear not to cry out
and say to the cities of Judah
Here is your God!
Here comes with power
the Lord GOD,
who rules by his strong arm;
Here is his reward with him,
his recompense before him.
Like a shepherd he feeds his
flock;
in his arms he gathers the
lambs,
Carrying them in his bosom,
and leading the ewes with
care.
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Commentary on Is
40:1-11
The Prophet Isaiah describes two real
events with his oracle in this section. Most familiar to us is the description
of John the Baptist since this passage is quoted in Matthew 3:3. It is also a description of the exiles returning from Babylon to Jerusalem
This description is followed by a
vision of the messianic kingdom to come and the rule of God who creates all
things and has authority over all things. The Kingdom of God
This selection concludes with the
analogy between the benevolent leadership of the Messiah to come with that of
the good shepherd who feeds and guides his flock. These verses tie nicely to
the passage from St. Matthew’s Gospel below.
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm
96:1-2, 3 and 10ac, 11-12, 13
R. (see Isaiah 40:10ab) The Lord our God comes with
power.
Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you
lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his
name;
announce his salvation, day
after day.
R. The Lord our God comes with power.
Tell his glory among the
nations;
among all peoples, his
wondrous deeds.
Say among the nations: The LORD
is king;
he governs the peoples with
equity.
R. The Lord our God comes with power.
Let the heavens be glad and
the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it
resound;
let the plains be joyful and
all that is in them!
Then let all the trees of the
forest rejoice.
R. The Lord our God comes with power.
They shall exult before the
LORD, for he comes;
for he comes to rule the
earth.
He shall rule the world with
justice
and the peoples with his
constancy.
R. The Lord our God comes with power.
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Commentary on Ps
96:1-2, 3 and 10ac, 11-12, 13
Psalm 96 is a
hymn of praise. These strophes direct us back to the glorious rule of the
Messiah to come. Looking forward, the singer rejoices in the rule of Justice,
mercy, and peace.
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Gospel: Matthew
18:12-14
Jesus said to his disciples:
“What is your opinion?
If a man has a hundred sheep
and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the
ninety-nine in the hills
and go in search of the
stray?
And if he finds it, amen, I
say to you, he rejoices more over it
than over the ninety-nine
that did not stray.
In just the same way, it is
not the will of your heavenly Father
that one of these little ones
be lost.”
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Commentary on Mt
18:12-14
This passage from the Gospel of St. Matthew is part
of a larger discourse about how to correct those who have gone astray but are
still within the Christian community. In this short passage the image of the
Good Shepherd is used to demonstrate the Father’s love for all those given to
His Son. “…it is not the
will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.”
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Reflection:
The Gospel authors record
that Jesus was fond of using analogy as a teaching tool. He gave the people a principle they could
relate to their personal lives. That is
why he speaks of shepherds, as he does today.
In other places there are frequent references to agriculture; sowing and
reaping – the process of separating the grain from the chaff. The attitudes of the people he addressed were
shaped by the importance of these events.
They meant survival or starvation in many instances.
These stories and analogies
have different impacts on peoples around the world. In many developing countries, the agrarian
values strike a deeper cord than in the urban centers of the developed
world. Many children in the US have
never been to a working farm, let alone work on one. To these products of a modern world, the
story of the lost sheep may not be as moving, in and of itself, as it was to
the original audience.
We rather believe, given the attitudes
about material goods many have in this country, that it may seem that the
shepherd of the lost sheep over reacted to the finding of the one. It goes to a sense of value. When the system of secular morality celebrates
only self; when there is no effort to teach responsibility for others wellbeing,
what relevance does the story of the Shepherd and the Lost Sheep have. It is actually counter cultural.
We use this observation to
highlight the importance of passing on our faith in the New
Evangelization. When we think about this
effort we are reminded of Emperor Penguins.
To survive in the harsh Antarctic climate they have developed a social
behavior. When conditions become
especially harsh and temperatures plunge, they gather closely together in a
large circle. Those at the interior of
the circle are completely protected and are warmed by all their fellow
penguins. Those at the outer edges are
chilled and move inward gently working their way to the center. As they move in others move out in rotation.
Using this image as sort of
what the Church is like, we can see that those most in need of the warmth of
the Gospel message are those out on the fringes. Those already strengthened by the flame of
faith move outward passing on that warmth.
The bottom line is that we
must be diligent in passing on what we have been given because increasingly
most of those we encounter don’t care about the lost sheep – even though they
themselves are lost.
Pax
[1]
ALTRE
[2]
The picture is “The Vigil of the Shepherds (detail)” by Benozzo Gozzoli,
1459-60
[3]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible with the exception of the
Psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for
English in Liturgy (ICEL). This
re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
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