Like Sheep without a Shepherd
July 22, 2012 - 16th
Sunday in Ordinary Time,
First reading from
Jeremiah
Woe to the shepherds who
mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the LORD. Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who shepherd my people: You have scattered my sheep and driven them away. You have not cared for them, but I will take care to punish your evil deeds. I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I have driven them and bring them back to their meadow; there they shall increase and multiply. I will appoint shepherds for my sheep, who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear and tremble; and none shall be missing, says the LORD.
The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Alleluia,
alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark
Glory to you, Lord.
The apostles now returned to
Jesus from their tour and reported all they had done and told the people. Then
Jesus suggested,”Let’s get away from the crowds for a while and rest.” For people
were coming and going in great numbers, and they hardly had any time to eat
something. So they went off in a boat by themselves to a deserted place. But
many saw them leaving and ran on ahead, along the shore and met them as they
landed. When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowds, his heart was moved with
compassion for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.Glory to you, Lord.
The Gospel of
the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus
Christ.
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Introduction
“Sheep without a shepherd”
Twice in the
gospels the crowds are typified as “sheep without a shepherd.” Mark relates that
Jesus and his disciples tried to go by boat to a secluded place, but the crowds
caught up to them. When Jesus saw the crowds waiting for Him, “His heart was
filled with compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a
shepherd.” (Mk. 6: 34) On another
occasion related by Matthew, Jesus visited towns and villages, preaching and
healing people from every kind of disease and sickness. “And when He saw the
crowds, his heart was filled with compassion for them, because they were
harassed and dejected like sheep without a shepherd.” (Mt. 9: 35-36)
Catholics
today - sheep without shepherds
Senior
Catholics remember the `good old days’ when the Church abounded with shepherds.
Every sizeable parish had a pastor with at least one or
two assistant priests. All that changed dramatically in the second half of the
Twentieth Century. Because of a shortage of priests (brought on, strange to
say, by the Second Vatican Council) parishes had to unite into `clusters’ or
`consortiums.’ In Milwaukee the parishes of St. Rita, St. Hedwig and Holy
Rosary united and formed a consortium, and gave it the funny name of the Church of the Three Holy Women. And some
overworked pastor now has to rush from one parish to another `to click off’ Sunday
Masses for the faithful. - The Church has a crisis on its hands, and no
band-aid measures like `clusters’ or `consortiums’ are going to fix it. With what
compassion would Jesus look upon Catholics today who are “like sheep without a shepherd.”
Horror stories of the priest shortage
One winter I was helping out in a little
country parish deep in the heart of Texas where I was escaping the cold blasts
of a typical Wisconsin winter. I was taking the place of a sickly pastor who, I
was told, actually said Sunday Mass sitting on a high chair in front of the
altar! And here I, an octogenarian, was stepping in (or limping in) to help a
flock of sheep without a shepherd. The next winter before heading south again,
I called the Vicar General of the Houston-Galveston Archdiocese to ask whether
I could be of some assistance in a parish down there. I can still hear the
surprise and delight in his voice. He exclaimed, “Oh, you’re an answer to our
prayers! One of our priests has just now suddenly died and isn’t even buried
yet; we do, indeed, need your help!” He was speaking about a beloved and
relatively young pastor of a parish in a little blue-collar town. Again, I, octogenarian,
was limping in to help a flock of sheep without a shepherd. - The Church
has a crisis on its hands, and no band-aid measure like importing a limping
octogenarian is going to fix it. With what compassion would Jesus look upon
Catholics today who are “like sheep without a shepherd.”
Fr. Küng and the shortage
Our
priest-shortage crisis is a good fifty years old. Crises should not be left to
die of old age; they should be fixed. Calling in limping octogenarians or
importing foreign priests (whose broken-English homilies the faithful can’t
understand and whose cultures are different from ours) is a band-aid which
doesn’t fix the problem but simply delays its solution. Swiss German Catholic
theologian, Fr. Hans Küng, aims at something better than band-aids to fix our crisis.
In his little volume, Why I Am Still a
Christian, he writes,
I cannot believe
that He who said “I have compassion on the crowds” would have increasingly
deprived congregations of their pastors and allowed a system of pastoral care (built
up over a period of a thousand years) to collapse. I also cannot believe that He
who was constantly accompanied by women (who provided for his keep), and whose
apostles, except for Paul, were all married and remained so, would today have
forbidden marriage to all ordained men, and ordination to all women.
Archbp. Weakland and the shortage
Former Archbishop of Milwaukee, Rembert
Weakland, OSB, also aimed at something better than band-aids to fix our crisis.
In his book A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church,
Weakland quotes a pastoral letter he sent to his people:
If it became
evident that no resident priest would be available for a parish, and that there
was no prospect of getting one in the near future, I would be willing to help
the community surface a qualified candidate for ordained priesthood – even if a
married man - and without raising false expectations or unfounded hope for him
or the community, present such a candidate to the Pastor [Shepherd] of the
Universal Church [the Pope] for light and guidance. (P. 340)
I wish to mention the lack of esteem for the Vatican that, on more than
one occasion, you are perceived to have shown. Your attitude toward the Holy
See is perceived as negative. Among the requirements of Catholic unity there is
the need [for you Rembert Weakland] to accept the tradition of the Church.
According to ecclesial practice, reinforced by a Synod of Bishops, it is not [italics ours] possible to present
married men for ordination to the priesthood. And on the question of the
ordination of women, your position is perceived to be in opposition to the
teaching of the Church. Moreover, the charge of ‘intransigency’ – a word used
by your Excellency – on the part of the Church in this matter, can seriously
damage Church authority and Church government.
Weakland’s closing shot
As a closing shot
to the whole affair, Weakland writes in his book:
When historians, decades from now, talk about the lack of vocations to
the priesthood in the Catholic Church at the end of the twentieth and beginning
of the twenty-first century, or when they try to analyze the reasons for the
falling off of active church participation, I hope they do not forget to
include as a contributing factor this silent group that left the Church – or at
least stood by the sidelines – not because of the sexual abuse by 4 percent of
its priests, but because of closing the discussion on the inclusion of women at
all levels. From generation to
generation, women have always been the most significant bearers of the Church’s
life and tradition; to lose them was tantamount to losing the future.
Presbyterians and the shortage
Margaret Butter was a pioneer CEO, philanthropist and
patron of the arts, especially of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. When she
died, her daughter-in-law, the Rev. Sarah Sarchet Butter (an ordained
Presbyterian minister) and I (a Catholic priest) officiated at Margaret’s
funeral. It took place in a cemetery chapel. Rev. Sarah did the first reading
from the Book of Proverbs, chapter 31, which sings the praises of a woman who
is a good mother, wife, and manager of her household. Rev. Sarah read with
wonderful expression and feeling. At the final commendation she invited the
crowd in the cemetery to draw near to the casket kissed by a setting sun on a
day filled with the fine feel of fall. She pulled everyone into a heartfelt
final good-bye.
A holy conversation about the shortage
Before Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, Richard
Gailardetz,
a husband, father and theology professor at the University of St. Thomas in
Houston, expressed the hope that the new Pope would
invite the Church to “a holy conversation” about all the great problems which afflict
it - issues like divorce and remarriage, birth control, clerical celibacy, homosexuality,
the ordination of women, and yes, a holy conversation about the shortage of
priests.
A holy conversation is one in which all are allowed to speak,
and all are allowed to be heard. It is a conversation which “resists the
temptation to control or direct the discussion toward predetermined
conclusions.” In the priest-shortage crisis, `a holy conversation’ is abruptly
ended (even before it gets started) by having recourse to a nebulous expressions
like `the sacred tradition of the Church,’ or like an ecclesial practice
reinforced by a Synod of Bishops of ordaining only celibates or only men. We
Americans remind ourselves that we had a long `sacred tradition’ of slavery in this country.
And we are now, indeed, happy we’ve broken it.
Conclusion
Everyone wins in a holy conversation
Gailardetz’ injunction to the Church “to hold a holy
conversation” is an injunction to all: husbands and wives, parents and
children, brothers and sisters should hold a holy conversation with each other.
That’s one in which each allows the other to speak, and each tries honestly to
hear what the other is saying. In a holy conversation everyone wins. In our
priest-shortage crisis, healthy young men (who want to minister but who also
want to marry) will win. Women also (who can do just as good a job of
ministering to God’s people as men can) will also win. The faithful too will
win; their beloved parish won’t have to join a `cluster’ with such a clumsy
name like Church of
the Three Holy Women; each will be able to get back its
own beloved parish with its own beloved name: St. Rita, St. Hedwig and Holy
Rosary. And
even octogenarians will win; they’ll be able to retire to green pastures before
they’re ninety.
[1][1]
Limen is Latin for `threshold.’ Every five years the bishops of the world must
go to Rome, to the threshold of St. Peter’s, and have a conference with the
Pope.
