Scripture Reflections for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Just as listening is essential to loving family and friends, there can be no love of God, no true love of self, without that stillness and silence which makes us receptive to Him”

“It was not just curiosity which had brought the crowds together from many places. It was expectancy, perhaps not defined but nonetheless very deep.”

“Rest isn’t for its own sake though, as some kind of reward for the hard work...Rather it's designed to nourish us to continue the mission, to continue proclaiming the Gospel, serving others and working for justice and peace”

“To rest in oneself often requires compassion for oneself”

“We who love God are all called to be shepherds to others”

“Today’s Gospel teaches that the Church must never grow tired of attending to the needs of the people. At the heart of her pastoral commitment is the service of compassion and reconciliation.”

“Today I pray, here I am, Lord! I come to do your will. Sustain me that I may live and lead your sheep to your Kingdom. Amen.”

“Let us step back, away from the noise of the crowd, and ask ourselves: What does compassion demand of me? What am I doing to reconcile God’s people? How can I contribute to positive change?”

“We may on the surface of things acknowledge Christ as the True Shepherd, but do we follow the example of the crowd in today’s Gospel? Do we hurry to hear to His teaching. Do we pause to allow him to teach us at length?”

“We need to be willing to accept direction and the truth about ourselves so that we can become better people”

“as we gather as Christ’s flock to be renewed by faith in the true shepherd, and while giving thanks for the fidelity of the great majority of pastors in the Church, we surely cannot but echo...the woe that the prophet Jeremiah pronounces against those, by whose scandalous behaviour, a generation has been driven away.”

“He did not see a crowd with no resources nor did he categorize them as religious or not. Jesus was present to them because they were his sisters and brothers. They are, like him, children of an Abba who listens and is present.”

“In today’s gospel, leading his Apostles to a wilderness place where a restless throng need teaching, Jesus teaches them that there is a lot more involved in being a teacher like him than they yet realize”

“Will our daily contacts with others be divisive or will they serve to unite? Will they increase mutual understanding and strengthen the bonds of friendship or will they add to suspicion, prejudice and antagonism?”

“Each day we have a number of choices between judgment and compassion. Both, of course, are necessary. There are times when we must make judgments and live by them. But the call of the Gospel asks us to include compassion in our choices.”

“Ahead of his people, with his people, behind his people, the Good Shepherd continues to guide us”

“What’s the right response to evangelization? Submit to his lordship and you’ll find rest.”

“At the heart of Jesus’ kingship, listen, is the vision of a new life”

“In the cross the Shepherd has done his work, now we who are grafted onto that Shepherd, we have work to do. We participate in Christ breaking down the walls of enmity.”

“Jesus is now this Good Shepherd made flesh, this Good Shepherd come among us to lead us even when we have suffered from bad leadership and bad shepherding”