Care For Our Common Home

Today we hear a lot about sheep and shepherds.  In our first reading “Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture says the LORD.”  In the psalm we hear the familiar passage: “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.  In verdant pastures he gives me repose.” Then in the Gospel we hear that Jesus saw a vast crowd, and his heart was moved with pity for they were like sheep without a shepherd. 

So, we have sheep and shepherds on our minds this afternoon reminding many of us of 1950s & 1960s TV westerns such as: Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Cheyenne, Sugarfoot, Big Valley, Rawhide, The Virginian, and many more.  Those shows often were about cattlemen’s sheep wars with sheepherders over grazing rights.  Cattlemen saw sheepherders as invaders who destroyed public grazing lands.  When left on pastures too long, sheep would graze the grass right down to the roots.  They could kill a pasture. 

This month Pope Francis very bluntly has told all of us – the world – that we have killed many of the pastures God has given us.  He stressed that the killing continues.  Consider that we human beings are like sheep on the pasture we call our Earth, and what have we done?  The Pope lays it all out for us in his latest encyclical: Laudato Si – Praise be to you: On care for our common home.

He says such things as: “Concern for the environment needs to be joined to a sincere love for our fellow human beings and an unwavering commitment to resolving the problems of society.  Doomsday predictions can no longer be met with irony or disdain.”

He says, “We may well be leaving to coming generations debris, desolation and filth.  The pace of consumption, waste and environmental change has so stretched the planet’s capacity that our contemporary lifestyle, unsustainable as it is, can only precipitate catastrophes, such as those which even now periodically occur in different areas of the world…It is our duty to protect the earth and to ensure its fruitfulness for coming generations.” 

Pope Francis reminds us that we are all supposed to be shepherds for our Earth and all it holds – all creatures great and small living along side us and sharing this wonderful gift from God.  But, instead, the human race has misled and scattered the many flocks of the LORD’s pasture. Think of the world’s many endangered species and extinctions.

Many of the Lord’s green pastures are now nothing more than vast wastelands caused by selfishness, greed, and more often than not, by horrible wars made possible by companies and nations that sell weapons resulting in great harm and mass destruction to people and their environment.  Politicians and other leaders have not been good shepherds.  Instead, they have catered to an economy we sheep demand of them with an economic engine having natural resources as its fuel. 

So, we ask ourselves: are we shepherds for the Earth or are we just grazing sheep?  This story should help us answer the question.
 
Once upon a time there was a town built just beyond the bend of a large river.  One day some children from the town were playing beside the river when they noticed three dogs floating in the water. They ran for help, and the townsfolk quickly pulled the dogs out of the river.  One dog was dead so they buried it.  One was alive, but quite ill, so they brought it to the local vet for treatment.  It recovered and a family adopted it.

From that day on, every day a large number of dogs came floating down the river.  Every day the good people of the town pulled them out and tended to them by placing them with families and burying those that were dead.

This went on for years with each day bringing more live and dead dogs.  The townsfolk not only came to expect large numbers each day, but they also developed an elaborate and effective system for picking them out of the river and tending to them.  Some of the townsfolk became quite generous in tending to these dogs and a few extraordinary people even gave up their jobs so that they could tend to this concern full-time.  The town was proud of its generosity and kindness in helping the dogs.

However, during all these years and despite all that generosity and effort, nobody ever thought to go up the river, beyond the bend that hid from their sight what was above them.  Nobody went to find out why all those dogs came floating down the river.

What does this story say to us?  The townsfolk were good sheep going every day to the river to help and bury the dogs.  But they could have been much more.

Pope Francis tells us to be good sheep, but he encourages us to be much more.  He asks all of us to be shepherds by going up the river and around the bend to tackle the causes of our society’s problems and find fixes to protect the Earth for coming generations. In other words, we are to care for, not trash and destroy our common home that just happens to be the dwelling place of our God.

Deacon David Pierce

Jeremiah 23:1-6
Ephesians 2:13-18
Mark 6:30-34

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time