Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Homily)
July 19, 2015 5:00 pm · Father David Mbimadong
Today the first reading taken from the prophet Jeremiah, draws our attention to the fact that God is not happy with the leaders of his people. It spoke about the people of Israel of old, but the same holds true for all of us now. That the religious leaders, instead of uniting the people, become a source of scandal and they dis-unite all of God's children. Instead of bringing about peace they bring about disunity and disharmony.
Not only the religious leaders, but every leader, even in our homes. Perhaps parents do not treat their little ones very well, they fail to understand their teenage children, and sometimes there is disunity, disagreement and many things go bad. Coming to the text, this is what the Lord said, for the leaders who scatter his own sheep, the Lord God said he was going to deal with them in such a way that they were going to suffer the consequences of their actions. In the end He said, He was going to gather the remnants of His scattered people and He would raise up another leader for them. In the Gospel we see in Jesus, the new leader the Lord God raised for his people.