2021-07-18 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

Leadership and Compassion

 

 


Today’s readings spoke to me of leadership and compassion, or rather, compassionate leadership.  In one of his talks, theologian Diarmuid O'Murchu questioned why King David is held up as an icon and why the Gospel writers would want David as part of the genealogy of Jesus.  David may have been a good shepherd boy, but as a king, he was a tyrant and he set in motion events that would 'destroy and scatter' God's people.  For example, David had at least seven wives, not counting his concubines, yet he committed adultery the wife of one of his soldiers.  Then to hide his adultery, he sent the soldier on a mission where David knew the outcome would be the soldier's death.  David's lust is a metaphor for greed fueled by a loss of compassion.  He has more than enough but he still wants more even if it means another must die.

 

Today's first reading suggests that perhaps world leaders have like David traded in their shepherd boy goodness for kingly power, ruthlessness, and injustice.  History teaches us that religious leaders are also prone to greed and the pursuit of power when the loose their capacity for compassion.  Likewise in today's secular world, we can see the injustice and ruthlessness of those in power all around the globe.  But the first reading is also telling us this is not then end of the story.  

 

God will “raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing”, that is, no one will be excluded.  So, I think the Gospel writers place King David in the genealogy of Jesus to show that Jesus is the First of the righteous Branch that God will raise up to execute justice and righteousness.  The second reading appears to back that up.  Paul tells the Ephesians— and us— that Jesus came to proclaim peace to and for all the “us's” and all the “thems.”   If we take his teaching to heart, we will know that we all have access in one Spirit, to the Divine Source.

 

The setting of today's gospel is just before the feeding of the five thousand.  Now remember that in the first reading God promised to “raise up shepherds” plural.  What Jesus is doing in today's gospel is teaching his followers to be shepherds and care for the sheep.  The gospel says he showed them compassion “because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.”  Jesus teaches them compassion by modelling compassion.  When you consider that this is the prelude to feeding the five thousand, maybe one of the things he taught them was the value of sharing. 

 

Unfortunately, we live in a world where “today, 80 people own as much wealth as half the world's population, while nearly a billion people can barely afford to feed their families.[1]”   We live in Canada where the richest person in our country owns more wealth than the bottom 7 million people.[2]”

 

Perhaps, as Parker Palmer suggests, the real miracle in the feeding of the five thousand was getting everyone to share the little bit of food they had with them and in so doing everyone was fed.  Today more than any other time in history, people in countries all over the world, people of all faiths and no faith, are waking up.  People not blinded by wealth, or the pursuit of power are beginning to realize that we are all in this together.  Perhaps now is the time promised in Jeremiah, when God's flock is united in the quest for justice, equality, and wholeness.  People are questing, not just for themselves, but for nature and for everyone, everywhere, that is, justice and well-being for the Earth and all her inhabitants.   All creation sings when we remember that when we share, no one goes hungry.

 

Please share your thoughts.

 


[1]http://www.oxfam.ca/get-involved/campaigns/even-it-up

[2]Oxfam Canada. “Voices for Change” Donor Newsletter, Summer 2015, p. 4

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