Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Okami
1st Reading: Jeremiah 23:1-6
I will raise up for David a righteous Branch
“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: “It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings,” says the Lord.
“Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing,” says the Lord.
“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”
2nd Reading: Epistle to the Ephesians 2:13-18
A people brought near by the blood of Christ
But now in Christ Jesus, the blood of Christ has brought you who once were far off near. For he is our peace; in his flesh, he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Gospel: Mark 6:30-34
Quiet retreat; then a return to serve the crowd
The apostles gathered around Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.
There is so much poverty in our world today, the poverty of different sorts; There is economic poverty, which we are all familiar with and are directly, or indirectly suffering from.
Outside of this, there are more dangerous kinds of poverty ravaging human life.
Let me just highlight 4 more kinds of poverty here;
- Poverty of commitment
- Spiritual poverty
- Poverty of love
- The poverty of responsibility.
This morning I shall be preaching on this last point- poverty of responsibility or you may say poverty of responsible men and women.
The population of the world is increasing daily and yet responsible people are reducing day by day. We have an overflow of irresponsibility in every sector of human life.
We have tons of irresponsible leaders, irresponsible politicians, irresponsible bosses and managers, so many irresponsible lecturers and heads of institutions, departments and faculties. We have irresponsible people in different vocations, careers and professions.
We have lots of husbands who are thoroughly irresponsible, physically alive but morally dead to their fundamental responsibilities, we have a plethora of wives and mothers who have awards in maternal irresponsibility, we also have irresponsible children who despite the toils of their parents have chosen a path of stupidity, gambling, waywardness and gross irresponsibility.
The most painful of all is that we also have irresponsible religious leaders and ministers. Spiritual leaders who have lost sense of their mission, lacking in integrity and moral probity, who have lost track of their vision and ideals, who pervert the gospel, leaders who project the self above the flock, shepherds who care for themselves at the detriment of their sheep, leaders lacking in knowledge, spirituality, character and definitive human virtues.
The readings of today call us to reflect on whether we are responsible or irresponsible people and leaders.
First Reading
God says, “doom for the shepherds who allow the flock of my pasture to be destroyed and scattered.” These are shepherds who instead of taking care of the sheep, feed on them and do not care for them thereby allowing them to wander.
God says “right now, I will take care of you for your misdeeds. “To take care here means “I will deal with you.”
The first part of a 2 part series of the sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Okami at the Catholic Church of the Presentation, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria on Sunday, July 22, 2018