16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) – July 21, 2024

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

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

The Shepherds of a Family

As I have shared a hundred times and I’ll share a hundred more, I grew up in a very Catholic family down in Wichita. I’m the fifth of ten kids—so, yeah, we fit the Catholic stereotype of a big Catholic family. But it wasn’t just that stereotype: every part of our life was penetrated by the Faith. As Deacon Nick mentioned and gave me a hard time for a few weeks ago, our daily schedule—our daily schedule—was modeled after Benedictine monasteries. That’s not an exaggeration! We would begin the day with 7:00am Mass, pray before we ate breakfast, pray before school, pray before we dinner, pray the Rosary as a family every night. That’s how our day was structured: around prayer. Sundays—I’ve shared a lot with you about Sundays and how we reclaimed our Sunday (that’s coming up next week!) And to this day—10 out of 10 of us are still practicing our faith. My brother is a third order Dominican and teaches seminarians, forms future priests. I’m a priest, sister below me is a sister, younger brother will be ordained a deacon next year. On and on. And again, I don’t say this to boast about how holy we are—ha! Deacon can now share plenty of stories about how that is not the case. The reason I share this is because if you ask any of my siblings why this is, every one of us, without hesitation, will point to my parents. It’s the question my siblings and I get all the time is: “Can we meet your parents? What did you parents do? Your parents are so amazing.” And again, I’m not going to stand up here and canonize my parents; they’re flawed just like every one of us.

But—but they are the ones that we point to. Because (and I know this is going to sound like by biggest “duh” statement of the century)—but our family didn’t happen by accident. The way our family lived, and the fact that we are all practicing our faith, and that we see our faith and our relationship with God as the most important thing in our lives—that is not an accident. That is a direct result of our parents and the way they raised us. It didn’t happen by accident. It happened because Jerry and Cas made a very conscious, very serious, very life-altering decision: to place God at the center of our entire family life.

I’ve shared with you before some of the reasons why my dad operated the way he did. He was very much influenced by the Benedictine monks. He has a big conversion about Sundays when he lead that letter from Pope Saint John Paul II. But I can’t remember if I’ve shared with you about my mom. My mom was raised just down the street in Nickerson—little Cassie Turner. She actually told people when she was growing up that she wanted ten kids! And as she started having kids, she did what all the other moms were doing: taking kids to school, signing up for all of the activities, soccer, dance recitals, music, you name it. If you asked her, she would have told you what I think a lot of parents would say: “I want my kids to grow up to be happy and healthy.” And of course! Who doesn’t?

But my mom had a big conversion when my oldest sister was pretty young—like 5 or 6. What happened is that a young girl, about my sister’s age at the time, was kidnapped; she had been walking down the street to a neighbors house or something—but she never made it. It was a big story, flooded the news and the papers! Everyone in Wichita had this little girl and her family and siblings in prayer. About a week later, her body was found—cast aside in a ditch, in a state of violation and violence we don’t need to repeat here. And my mother—my mom, she shared with me how much this struck her. Because this little girl was the same age as my older sister at the time. And what struck her in that moment was a simple fact: I cannot guarantee my children happiness and health, not in this life. “Maybe I protect them, and care for them, and give them the best education, and everything in life; and they are passionate, and driven, and independent, and kind and gracious and loving and compassionate; they are perfect and happy and healthy! Maybe! But I cannot prevent something like this, I cannot protect them from the malevolence of the world, I cannot prevent the accidents that take lives and health and happiness.” And it was on that day that my mother made a concrete decision: “All that I can do is point them to God, to Jesus Christ. The only way I can guarantee their happiness is by leading them to heaven.”

That, my friends—that is what shaped our family’s life. What my parents said “yes” to, what they said “no” to—everything was shaped by placing this goal at the center. And this is what parents, Christian, Catholics parents—this is their job. Everything else is going to fade. The one thing you can give your child that won’t fail them…it’s God, it’s Jesus Christ.

Bad Shepherds, Bad Results

In our readings today, especially our first reading, we discover just how disastrous it is when this isn’t the case. The prophet Jeremiah is speaking to a generation of people that have really lost sight of things. At this time in the history of God’s people, several hundred years before Jesus comes, the people had turned their interest to what everyone else was doing. They had turned away from God’s path, God’s commandments, the way God was leading them. And they had decided to follow the example of the nations around them, to do what they were doing. They decided that money, and power, and pleasure, and fun—these were most important. They abandoned God. And they weren’t terrible people, they just wanted to fit in with everyone else. And who can blame them!? We all do that! But it was getting worse and worse. At rock bottom, they even began to kill their own kids—sacrificing them. And how did this happen? Well, the kings, the leaders, the shepherds of the people—they were leading the charge. As the leader, they were setting the tone—and the people just followed along. And the lead of the shepherd? It was a bad lead. And everything was falling apart. Ultimately, it would lead to the people being exiled, enslaved, taken into a land they did not want to go to.

The thing is that this didn’t just happen back then. It happens now. It’s just a bit more subtle. I shared this a few weeks ago: the persecution we face, that we face right now, is not a violent persecution, it’s a “soft persecution.” The persecution we face now, like God’s people faced in Jeremiah’s time—it didn’t feel like persecution. They were just going along with what everyone else was doing. They were just going with the flow, wanting the best for themselves and their families. But it led to destruction. 

And I think we can easily slip into this too! We can easily go along with what other people are doing. And with the best of intentions! I mean, this is how culture works: we do what everyone else does, because this is what we as a society have decided is valuable. Work, sports, careers, 4H—you name it! And it’s not like any of those are sins. And yet, we can easily wake up one day and realize that we’ve been taken to a land we did not want to go to, exiled to a place from which we do not know how to return, enslaved to things we didn’t think were a big deal. Almost by accident we end up “sacrificing” our kids to everything going on around us.

Ok—into that situation, what does the Lord promise through the prophet Jeremiah? Listen. “Therefore, thus says the LORD…I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear and tremble…I will raise up a righteous shoot to David; as king he shall reign and govern wisely.” What does the Lord promise? He promises to send a Shepherd who will finally care for the sheep, one who won’t just “go with the flow,” but will wisely and lead the sheep. He will “save” the sheep—there is nothing we shall want. This is Jesus Christ.

The Promise of a New Shepherd

So the big question for us: Will I follow this Shepherd’s lead, or will I follow the lead of everyone else around me? And we all know the right answer. But here’s the challenge: in this time, in this age—following the Shepherd will involve being a little counter cultural. We can no longer just “go with the flow” and “do what everyone else does”—oh, and go to church on the weekend. Nope. Not going to cut it. The time and age that we live in is designed to suck the life of faith, and the interest in God right out of us. Our culture, our day to day life is not neutral. 

And especially as parents—as parents, you have been given the most previous and sacred of responsibilities. The Lord has given you the role of “shepherd” in your families. And as important and necessary as my role is as the pastor and shepherd of this parish, your role and your influence as shepherd in your home is 1,000X greater than mine. As parents, you have an irreplaceable role as shepherd to your children.

And so you have to ask yourself: Where am I leading them? When I make decisions about what we are doing, or not doing—does this decision put God at the center, lead to him? Am I concerned about my kids being happy and healthy and successful—or am I concerned that my children are on the path to heaven? Am I going along with what everyone else is doing—or am I going against the grain at times in order to keep my family close to God?

I’ll keep giving more and more practicals in the upcoming year, but one of the most practical things that you can do in “shepherding” your family is to Reclaim Sunday. I know I sound like a broken record, but I warned you that I wasn’t going to let this one go! Reclaiming Sunday is one of the most counter cultural things to do in our day and age. And do you know how I know that? Because of the looks I got when I first started bringing it up after Easter! To truly reclaim Sunday, to set that entire day apart for God and rest and family—instead of sports, and grocery shopping, and getting ready for Monday, and the Chiefs—that made us uncomfortable! And yet, for those of you that have already begun to implement it, I’ve already heard just how powerful it is. So I encourage you, rededicate yourself to it! Get your Reclaimed Sunday sheet and keep at it. Little by little, we can reclaim not only the 4th Sunday, but each and every Sunday—and that will transform our communities like you wouldn’t believe. I already have people from other parishes (even from outside the state of Kansas!) asking me for these resources. We’re ground zero! Don’t be afraid!

Because in our day and age, this is the greatest virtue we are going to need: courage. In order to do this, we are going to be tempted to make decisions based on fear: fear of missing out (FOMO), fear of what others may think, fear of our kids being upset that we don’t do things we used to do, fear of being judged, fear, fear, fear. But as Jesus says elsewhere, “Do not be afraid, little flock.” Do not be afraid. As my mom would tell you, yeah, you are going to miss out on some things, people are going to think what they want to think, kids are going to be upset sometimes, and people will judge you. But just like you would defend your kid from anyone that would try to harm them, defend them from everything that’s trying to harm them. With great courage, follow after the Good Shepherd, be a good shepherd to those around you. And in that way, we will all be the saints that God calls us to be.