Bo Peep

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and doesn’t know where to find them. Leave them alone and they’ll come home, bringing their tails behind them.

Little Bo Peep fell fast asleep and dreamt she heard them bleating. But when she awoke, she found it a joke, for they were all still fleeting.

Then up she took her little crook determined for to find them. She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed, for they left their tails behind them.

It happened one day, as Bo peep did stray into a meadow hard by. There she espied their tails side by side all hung on a tree to dry. She heaved a sigh, and wiped her eye, and over the hillocks went rambling. And tried what she could, as a shepherdess should. (end)

Seems a bit gruesome, those cut off tails hung on a tree to dry.  In contrast, Jesus, our shepherd, was hung on a tree to “dry” in the sun.  His heart bled for us.

Bo Peep’s sheep strayed and suffered the loss of their tails because she fell asleep.  Today’s reading reminds us we are surrounded by potential thieves and robbers who would rob us of our faith and tempt us to do wrongs, such as lie and betray those close to us and our friends.  They would have us “steal and slaughter and destroy.”  When this happens, let’s recognize Jesus’ voice, remain awake, and pass through his gate where we are sheltered and protected – where we find pasture.

Today’s readings also include Matthew 25.  Too many of us have fallen fast asleep and don’t hear the bleating of those in need of help with fleeting prospects for happiness.  Their tails are drying on trees meaning we are not heaving a sigh or wiping an eye when we witness their plight.  

We agree the Eucharist is the source and summit of our Catholic lives.  But did we reach that mountain top as goats and not as sheep meaning we receive the Body of Christ with little thought as to what that destination means.  Matthew 25 reminds us not to sit on Jesus’s left where we will be told: “Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.  You are off to eternal punishment, while the righteous go onto eternal life."  Yikes!  Time for us to wake up before it is too late.

Ezekiel reminds us to seek out the lost; bring back the strays; bind up the injured; heal the sick; and shepherd them rightly. That’s the path that leads us to the summit.  We become the Body of Christ helping us to find the path and to leave blazes on trees and rocks for those behind us to find and follow.

Deacon David Pierce