A call to recognize each person as part of the flock to be served
Feast of Christ the Servant, November 26, 2023
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RWCP
Ezekiel 34: 11-12, 15-17; Responsorial Psalm: Like a Shepherd; Romans 15: 25-29; Matthew 25: 31-40
When we think of servant leaders, of shepherds in the example of Jesus, there are many famous historic examples, Rosalyn Carter among them, may she rise in glory. But this morning, I am not going to talk about any of them. The person who comes to my mind is my friend Mary Ellen, may she also rest in peace. Mary Ellen led our food co-op, which was how I met her. She believed in helping families buy healthy, fresh food at reasonable prices. Better yet, she believed in helping people grow their own food. She tilled gardens for people every spring, and dispensed lots of free gardening and canning advice in the process. Having grown up on a farm in Iowa, she was a rich storehouse of knowledge. She made her living cleaning houses, splitting firewood, and doing other odd jobs. She was single and never had any children, but for years, she took care of our four children every Wednesday evening, when I had late clinic hours. Our kids have sweet memories of the stories she told and the funny things she did. She traveled to Kenya several times, where she sponsored a hospital. She was always giving people fabric and patterns so they could help her make hospital gowns. She would sell beautiful fabric made by local Kenyan artisans as well. Our dining rooms curtains were made from some. She was Mennonite, an example of a peaceful, loving, charitable person if ever there was one.
We join the Comprehensive Catholic Lectionary again this year in a different take on the Feast of Christ the King, recognizing not only that God’s greatness transcends gender, but also that Jesus’ example was that of a servant leader, one who lead by guiding, teaching, and healing, rather than by control or power over. We know that sometimes marginalized people can feel empowered by defiance of the hierarchies that force them down, by crowning their own hero, by saying, “OK, we declare that one of us is the king of the world now.” But we choose to move beyond that defiant impulse, to recognition of an image more authentic to Jesus’ words and actions, to a model of leadership with which we can more directly start to mend the world. Pope Francis has advised ministers to take on the smell of the sheep, to go out of themselves to experience the best of their people, which can stir the depths of their hearts. This is more consistent with Jesus’ words in Matthew’s gospel today, with feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, helping the sick, and visiting the prisoner. Leading with charity, with compassion, with an eye toward uprooting and replacing unjust systems, this is the kind of leadership style we need to stretch toward if we want to be Christlike, as we are called to be.
Our first reading referred to God as a shepherd as well, one who searched tirelessly for any lost sheep, from among the scattered, rescuing them when they had gone astray “when the clouds were low and the darkness thick.” We can all think of sad, disorienting times in our lives like that, I am sure, when we may have found ourselves far from God’s loving guidance. But if we choose, we are always welcomed back, bound up if we are injured, strengthened if we are weak. And we are called to be the same kind of shepherds. I think we are especially called to recognize one another as part of the flock, even if scattered far and wide. We are called to look carefully at everyone, even if we don’t usually hang out in the same pastures or follow the same trails. Still we are all God’s lambs, and we are responsible for their love and care and help, whether in Carmel or the east side of Indy or Ukraine or Gaza.
In our second reading, Paul describes a Gentile Christian community sending financial help to a Jewish Christian community, because they had fallen on hard times. We are all blessed by God, Paul told a third community, and are called to bless one another any way we can. We owe this to one another and, if we understand the generous love of God, will do this with pleasure, with gusto, having realized the deep beauty of God’s generosity in our own lives.
So this Thanksgiving weekend, on this Feast of Christ the Servant, contemplating the shepherd-like leadership of Jesus, and anticipating the season of the Advent of the Christ, let us love one another in a new, less guarded, more reflexive, freer, more expansive way. Let us expand our hearts to work to recognize everyone we meet as another member of the flock, and those we have never met as well.
Feast of Christ the Servant, November 26, 2023
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RWCP
Ezekiel 34: 11-12, 15-17; Responsorial Psalm: Like a Shepherd; Romans 15: 25-29; Matthew 25: 31-40
When we think of servant leaders, of shepherds in the example of Jesus, there are many famous historic examples, Rosalyn Carter among them, may she rise in glory. But this morning, I am not going to talk about any of them. The person who comes to my mind is my friend Mary Ellen, may she also rest in peace. Mary Ellen led our food co-op, which was how I met her. She believed in helping families buy healthy, fresh food at reasonable prices. Better yet, she believed in helping people grow their own food. She tilled gardens for people every spring, and dispensed lots of free gardening and canning advice in the process. Having grown up on a farm in Iowa, she was a rich storehouse of knowledge. She made her living cleaning houses, splitting firewood, and doing other odd jobs. She was single and never had any children, but for years, she took care of our four children every Wednesday evening, when I had late clinic hours. Our kids have sweet memories of the stories she told and the funny things she did. She traveled to Kenya several times, where she sponsored a hospital. She was always giving people fabric and patterns so they could help her make hospital gowns. She would sell beautiful fabric made by local Kenyan artisans as well. Our dining rooms curtains were made from some. She was Mennonite, an example of a peaceful, loving, charitable person if ever there was one.
We join the Comprehensive Catholic Lectionary again this year in a different take on the Feast of Christ the King, recognizing not only that God’s greatness transcends gender, but also that Jesus’ example was that of a servant leader, one who lead by guiding, teaching, and healing, rather than by control or power over. We know that sometimes marginalized people can feel empowered by defiance of the hierarchies that force them down, by crowning their own hero, by saying, “OK, we declare that one of us is the king of the world now.” But we choose to move beyond that defiant impulse, to recognition of an image more authentic to Jesus’ words and actions, to a model of leadership with which we can more directly start to mend the world. Pope Francis has advised ministers to take on the smell of the sheep, to go out of themselves to experience the best of their people, which can stir the depths of their hearts. This is more consistent with Jesus’ words in Matthew’s gospel today, with feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, helping the sick, and visiting the prisoner. Leading with charity, with compassion, with an eye toward uprooting and replacing unjust systems, this is the kind of leadership style we need to stretch toward if we want to be Christlike, as we are called to be.
Our first reading referred to God as a shepherd as well, one who searched tirelessly for any lost sheep, from among the scattered, rescuing them when they had gone astray “when the clouds were low and the darkness thick.” We can all think of sad, disorienting times in our lives like that, I am sure, when we may have found ourselves far from God’s loving guidance. But if we choose, we are always welcomed back, bound up if we are injured, strengthened if we are weak. And we are called to be the same kind of shepherds. I think we are especially called to recognize one another as part of the flock, even if scattered far and wide. We are called to look carefully at everyone, even if we don’t usually hang out in the same pastures or follow the same trails. Still we are all God’s lambs, and we are responsible for their love and care and help, whether in Carmel or the east side of Indy or Ukraine or Gaza.
In our second reading, Paul describes a Gentile Christian community sending financial help to a Jewish Christian community, because they had fallen on hard times. We are all blessed by God, Paul told a third community, and are called to bless one another any way we can. We owe this to one another and, if we understand the generous love of God, will do this with pleasure, with gusto, having realized the deep beauty of God’s generosity in our own lives.
So this Thanksgiving weekend, on this Feast of Christ the Servant, contemplating the shepherd-like leadership of Jesus, and anticipating the season of the Advent of the Christ, let us love one another in a new, less guarded, more reflexive, freer, more expansive way. Let us expand our hearts to work to recognize everyone we meet as another member of the flock, and those we have never met as well.
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