November 26, 2023
We are living times of spiritual devastation. What is the hope that Christ the King brings?
Key Points
- God denounces the unfaithful shepherds.
- What effects does their unfaithfulness cause?
- What does God announce through Ezekiel?
- How is the Paschal Mystery of Jesus a light for the Church today?
- Jesus Christ is our great Shepherd, Lord and King
This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable. It has not been verified by the author.
On this feast of Christ, the King in 2023, with all that’s going on, in our Church, in our country, and the world, I was praying about what the Lord wanted me to preach on here, at our little mission today. And I was drawn to this first reading of the prophet Ezekiel. But I think to understand that it’s good to back up and see what comes before this reading. What comes immediately before it, Ezekiel says, “The word of the Lord came to me, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel.” prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, “prophesy and say to them, even to the shepherds, that says the Lord God, listen, shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding yourselves, should not the shepherds feed the sheep, you eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick, you have not healed, the crippled, you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought. And with force and harshness, you have ruled over them. So they were scattered, because there weren’t, there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beast. My sheep are scattered, they wandered over all the mountains, and on every high hill, My sheep are scattered over all the face of the earth with none to search or seek for them.” So he’s denouncing the shepherds, for not having taken care of the sheep. And even in the Gospel with Jesus says, it seemed like the people were like sheep without a shepherd. And so already this passage already way back in the time of Ezekiel, speaking of the lack of the shepherds. And so what does that cause? What are the consequences of that? And we have in the Psalms, I think, an image of the devastation that that causes and certain Psalms in which they’re speaking both have an historical event the destruction of the Temple of Solomon, when Jerusalem was invaded, but they also have a symbolic significance that we can meditate for the Church today. Psalm 74 speaks at lamentation. It says “the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary. Your foes have roared in the midst of your holy place. They set up their own signs for signs, so the temple has been desecrated. Then all its carved wood, they broke down with hatchets and hammers, they set your sanctuary on fire to the ground. They desecrated the dwelling place of your name,” to the ground, they desecrated the dwelling place of your name. And Psalm 79 says, “Oh God, the heathen have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple,” defiled your holy temple. “They have laid Jerusalem in ruins. We have become the taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us.” And when we realized that Jerusalem and the temple, are seen also as prefiguration of the Church, we can ask, what significance does this have for the Church? And I think of the great traditions, so many great traditions or beliefs or practices, rites and customs, that have been handed down through the history of the Church over the centuries, like a treasure, to nourish and guide, to inspire the faithful. And so many of them have been lost, rejected, undermined, torn down. The image that comes to my mind is like a great gothic cathedral that took a long time, many decades, sometimes centuries to build, and has been a place of worship and adoration for many centuries. Where the like are imbued with all this worship of the people of God, and then suddenly torn down. And a warehouse is put up in its place. And so instead of worshipping in this beautiful cathedral, we’re worshiping in the warehouse. So we’re living in a time in which so much of the traditions have been torn down. And it seems like nothing is solid. Everything is changing. We see it in the liturgy, and the celebration, the Holy Mass, and which it’s such a battle now, to try to restore a sense of reverence and adoration. And with so much has been lost so much of faith, and real presence of the Lord. We see it in morality and the guidance about how to act, and which for many people, nothing seems clear, that everything seems up for change. And even the foundations like the 10 commandments, everything seems to be called into question, even in foundations, like the foundation of marriage. And so this is a very discouraging situation. And so what is the word of God say to us, in this situation on this feast of Christ, the King. And so that brings us to the passage we had today, the passage from the prophet Ezekiel. And because what the Lord is saying through the prophet Ezekiel is astounding, it’s hard to believe. So, you probably don’t even remember what the first reading was, but it’s actually very astounding. So I’ll read what it says, “For thus says, The Lord God, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I, I myself, will search for my sheep, and I will seek them out.” So that’s what’s so shocking is in the shepherds, haven’t, many of the shepherds haven’t done their job. So he says, He Himself will do it, God Himself is going to act. And so that’s very striking, that God is promising that He Himself, He, our Lord, God will act to shepherd the sheep. And He doesn’t just say it once, this whole passage is insistent on that. He says, “as a shepherd seeks out His flock, when some of his sheep have been scattered abroad. So will I seek out My sheep, I will seek out My sheep. And I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on the day of clouds and thick darkness.” And we’re living in times of clouds and thick darkness. “And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and will bring them into their own lands,” and He will bring His people together, “I will feed them with good pasture. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep”. I myself, God says, will be the shepherd of my sheep, “and I will make them lie down says the Lord God. And I will bring back the strays, and I will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak, I will save my flock,” I will save my flock, “and they shall know that I the LORD their God am with them.”. Because that’s the thing that many people don’t know, Where is God today? We don’t sense His presence. Why is He letting all this happen? It seems He’s not there. So many people have lost their faith, right? So many people are losing their faith in these times. And so He’s saying, they shall know that I the LORD their God, am with them. That’s the promise, that He’s prophesying, and that you are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, says the Lord God. So He is promising to do what the human shepherds have not done. You know, the special mission, the special charism of this little mission is faith. So that not just faith so that we can act, not just faith so that we can do our part. But it’s faith so that God can act. And that’s so important for the Church to remember that the Church has an important role, but the role is above all, to permit God’s action. God Himself acting and that that’s what he’s saying here, the faith so that God can act. And the whole scripture is speaking of faith in a God who acts, from Genesis when He creates from the great examples like calling Abraham and leading this huge multitude out of Egypt, throughout all this history, it’s a history of a God who acts in all the way that God who acts, even becoming present among us. And then the book of Revelation is speaking of the God who will be acting to the fulfillment of all. A God who has acted and is acting and will act. But we don’t always see that because this action is often mysterious. And that leads us to the great mystery, which is at the center of our faith, the Pascall mystery, the Pascall mystery which we represent, with Jesus crucified, and which at His passion, it didn’t seem that God was acting. We saw, on the contrary, satan, and evil men acting and triumphing as they, Jesus has betrayed and abandoned and stripped and scourged and condemned and mocked and crucified. Where is God? Why isn’t He doing anything? Is He still here? Why is satan triumphant, and the faith, even of the apostles and the disciples were shaken, discouraged, even despairing. And that that crucifixion of Jesus was not ruled by God, but it was permitted by God for His own mysterious designs, for His own eternal triumph. As St. Paul says, “God makes all things work for the good of those who love Him.” And even that which seemed the absence of God acting when Jesus was crucified on the cross, and yet it was preparing the way for the great action of God. When men and satan crucified the Son of God, crucified our Savior, and it seemed like they had completely destroyed His mission, and what could the apostles do? What was there left to be done? It seemed like that was the end. And then God acted. Maybe somebody could close this window. So then, sometimes men have to act also. So we have our part to play, that’s an example of our part to play. But God was acting. His great action came after what seemed to be His absence. And so that’s, as I’ve said so many times, that’s the light for our Church today. And it’s extraordinary times, in which I feel like the Church is, as many saints and doctors of the Church have prophesied, and as the Catechism speaks of, living an especially intense way today, the Pascall mystery, the Passion of Our Lord. And as Saint Paul says, where sin abounds, and sin abounds today, but he says, Grace over abounded. So much good has been destroyed. And we’ve seen so many triumphs of evil in our times, causing great tribulation. But Jesus Christ is king. Jesus Christ is King forever. And if there are times in which He permits, like the eclipse of His power and His light. And in many ways, that’s what we’re living today. As I say, we all know so many people who have lost their faith. And maybe we ourselves are struggling with our faith. We’re living in one of these times I have an eclipse. But this is because we have been chosen for these dramatic critical times. We’re the ones who have been chosen for this great trial of the Church, and which is becoming very difficult to hold on. The Church may experience, like Jesus, it may seem like the Church is dying. Many people have that impression of the Church seems to be a relic that’s still hanging on. But this which will seem to be a death of the Church is, in the image of Jesus Himself, is leading to its great renewal. I don’t know exactly when, I don’t know exactly how, but that is our faith. Many saints and doctors of the Church spoke about this. One example is Pope St. Gregory the Great in the late five hundreds and he did a long commentary on the book of Job, famous commentary. And he spoke out, I’ll just paraphrase what he said. But he spoke of this great trial, which the Church would undergo, in which the beauty and splendor of the Church and her power would be hidden. And the great miracles that the Church had experienced in the prodigies of healings and casting out demons and prophecies and so forth, will seem diminished, even seem absent. And he said, this great trial is both a time of Divine Mercy and of divine justice, of Divine Mercy for the good, because for the good, it will be a time of purifying them, of purifying them, of what is still too human and increasing their merits, as the faith, as the faith becomes very difficult. And for the evil, it will become a time in which they will be revealed. Because they will, there will, there won’t be the things holding them back. And for the evil as for instance, as the Council of Trent makes it very clear, there’s the evil also in the Church, we know that the Church is made up of sinners, and there can be very evil persons in the Church. And in those times of trial, it’s often the times in which there’s, we have to make a decision. And there can be a time at which evil becomes much more obvious, much more apparent, the evil is like unveiled as manifested. But this great trial will prepare the triumph of Jesus and His Church, a great renewal, a great reconquest, in which the commandments of His holy law will once again shine forth to guide His sheep. The same commandments, not new commandments, the same commandment that He has given, not the commandments, adapted to the world, but the same commandments, in which He will reign in the Blessed Sacrament, in the Holy Eucharist, where His sheep, where His faithful can come with reverence, to adore Him, and to feed their hearts and souls with His love, which is what we have come here to do today. And so these prophetic words are words to give us consolation, as St. Paul says, the prophesies speaks to men for their upbuilding, and encouragement and consolation. And through these words that the Lord gave to Ezekiel, he wants to encourage us and console us in our difficult times, that even if it sometimes feels like that, He has not abandoned His people. And I think that’s this little Mission of Divine Mercy is part of this preparation for this renewal that the Lord wants to bring about. And so we’re called to faith. In these difficult times of trial. We’re called to faith so that God can act. Faith, listening to His word, the God who continues to speak to His people. Jesus Christ is our great Shepherd, our Lord and king. And we are living these extraordinary critical times of great change with a lot of devastation, and tribulation. The psalm speaks of God who leads us through the valley of death. But He is leading His people through this valley of death, to His triumph. And what He needs, above all from us, is our trust. And so we ask our Blessed Mother, our queen, to help us trust in Him to strengthen our trust. And so I’m just going to finish with rereading again, this great prophecy from Ezekiel, and if you want, you can close your eyes and listen to this promise of our Lord, which is speaking through His Word today to ust say. “Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I myself will search for my sheep. And I will seek them out as a shepherd seeks out his flock, when some of his sheep have been scattered abroad. So will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.” And so many we know so many people have been scattered, because of the darkness of our times. He says, that “I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and will bring them into their own land. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed and I will bind the crippled and I will strengthen the weak, I will save my flock and they shall know that I the LORD their God am with them. And that you are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, says the Lord God.” Amen.
KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17
Psalm 23:1-2, 2-3, 5-6
Matthew 25:31-46