One Flock,
One Shepherd
Piety
As I began
to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them as it had upon us at the beginning, and
I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but
you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave them the same gift,
he gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be
able to hinder God?” When they heard this, they stopped objecting and glorified
God, saying, “God has then granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too.”
Acts 11:15-18
I am the
good shepherd and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me,
and I know the Father, and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other
sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will
hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. John 10:14-16
Study
The good
shepherd discourse we heard Sunday continues in today’s readings. The “good” shepherd also is a sharp prosecutor
as he continues his attack on the Pharisees. The “hired hands” are the ungrateful
Pharisees who excommunicated the cured blind man.
This theme of
God as the shepherd resonates with those in Christ’s audience who know the Hebrew
Bible (Genesis, Exodus) including this passage from Micah: Shepherd your people with your staff, the
flock of your heritage, that lives apart in a woodland, in the midst of an
orchard. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. (Micah
7:14)
However, the
lesson of one Good Shepherd over “one flock” also had to be reinforced with the
fledgling community of Jewish Christians.
Many people thought it was a scandal to learn of Peter’s sojourn in the
house of the Gentile Cornelius. Nonetheless, they had to (reluctantly?) accept
the divine directions given to both Peter and Cornelius. They concluded that
the setting aside of the legal barriers between Jew and Gentile was an
exceptional ordinance of God to indicate that the “conversion” is also available
to the Gentiles.[i]
Action
We are in a situation
where the “flock” is pretty divided. Some people can work from home. Some people cannot. Some people find it easier to maintain physical/social
distance; others do not. Many people
wear masks, but some do not wear masks because they are not “required.”
The Fort
Worth and Dallas
dioceses are among the first to issue guidelines for how to return to Mass
while maintaining a safe environment for parishioners. However, only the Dallas diocese will allow
online Mass. Situations like this will exacerbate a “two flock” situation,
especially when you consider “safe” Mass for those over 60 and under 60.
We need to
work and pray for the day when we have one flock.
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