…His Heart Was Moved With Compassion
Homily For The 16th Sunday In The Ordinary Time Year B, July 21, 2024
“You must remember to love people and use things, rather than to love things and use people.” – Fulton Sheen
Sunday Readings
My Dearest Friends in Christ,
Today’s readings are a clarion call for good, compassionate, and empathic leadership in the Church and State. We are reminded that we are partners with God in the work of shepherding His flock and we are all called to use our positions in life to guide and guard others in compassion, truth, and fidelity to God, in whose work we all participate.
We Lack Compassion When We Neglect The Human Person To Build Structures
It is remarkable to note that in terms of infrastructural development, so much has been done in the Church and State in many parts of the world. Most developing nations might still be struggling with this. Much attention is paid to building up structures and not the human person. One would ask: Of what use are all the infrastructural developments when the human person is abandoned and uncared for? What is the benefit of building a gigantic church without building up the faith and moral life of people through effective pastoral activities and faith-filled homilies that transform their lives? Many leaders glory in infrastructural achievement while neglecting the welfare of the people. What is the purpose of building stadiums and airports if everyone can’t have access to quality healthcare, food, and education? It was Fulton Sheen who once said: “You must remember to love people and use things, rather than to love things and use people.” Poverty today is caused by leaders who value things and not people. When people lead without compassion their values and priorities are misplaced. While I do not condemn infrastructure development, I condemn the negligence of the suffering people to make a landmark achievement that offers them no benefits. Let us follow the example of Jesus.
We must Teach others to Do The Right Thing By Our Good Examples.
Despite being so occupied with the needs of others, yet needing to rest from work, Jesus still had time to teach the people. Why? Because the needs of the people were more valuable than even His leisure and rest. He had compassion because the crowd had no sense of direction, and no leader to guide them. Nothing is more valuable than the welfare of the human person. When we shift focus from this to other things, all efforts are wasted.
Without Compassion We Become Dictators, Let’s Imitate Jesus’ Example.
Jesus was moved with compassion, (some translations will say pity) for the situation of the people. Derived from cum (with) and passio ( suffering ) compassion means to “suffer with”. Compassion motivates people to go out of their way to help others. Compassion is often regarded as having sensitivity to the sufferings of another. This is what is lacking in modern-day leadership. Fulton J. Sheen once said, “If the bringing of children into the world is today an economic burden, it is because the social system is inadequate; and not because God’s law is wrong.” Therefore the State should remove the causes of that burden. The human must not be limited and controlled to fit the economy, but the economy must be expanded to fit the human”. The human person should be the focus of governance
Look at the countries of the world today. You can see the damages brought upon her by bad leadership. There are many leaders without compassion, empathy, and vision for the welfare of the people. Some leaders build low-quality structures and embezzle the rest of the funds, leaving the people in dehumanizing and pitiable conditions.
Religious Leaders Dont Milk The Cows, Feed The Sheeps
In the religious circle, I pity pastors who milk their “cows” and pride themselves on building structures, without any remarkable impact on the people’s lives. Ask yourself, how much have you contributed in your profession to alleviating the poverty of the people? As an employer, do you use your employees as machines or humans? Is their dignity as human persons still respected? And you parents, have you left parenting to pursue material things? Why are our children wandering on the streets like sheep without a shepherd? The shift from people to things is very dangerous to the survival of our humanity. Many need direction and guidance. Like Jesus, let’s continue teaching people with compassion and love because many are perishing for lack of knowledge. ( cf. Hosea 4:6)
In the first reading from Jeremiah 23:1-6, the Prophet Jeremiah (6th B.C.), thunders against Israel’s careless leaders, specifically, the king, some priests, and some court prophets, because they have shown no concern for the poor. Jeremiah also foretells the rise of a good, new Shepherd in the family line of David. Today God is still lamenting over the leaders. These are those priests, presidents, governors, lawyers, professors, doctors, nurses, teachers, employers, kings, and queens who have scattered, misguided, and driven away the people entrusted to them. God promised through Jeremiah to raise a righteous shoot from David that would reign and govern wisely. He shall do what is just and right in the land. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell in security. Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy.
Let us, as St Paul tells us in the second reading, imitate Jesus who through His blood reconciled Jews and Gentiles, preaching peace to those who were far off and those who were near. We are all agents of this peace in society. Let us embrace it, doing all we can as God’s children, leaders, prophets, priests, and kings to break down the barriers of prejudice, enmity, and discrimination among us. Let us seek to reconcile with everyone and live more harmoniously. We need God’s grace to become good leaders: The Christian life is a continuous passage from the Presence of God to the presence of people and back again.
The Church has the double responsibility of, teaching and feeding: There can be no true Christianity without the proclamation of the Gospel. Teaching the Word of God is essential to a Christian community. Christians must also display the compassion of Jesus by meeting the social and material needs of others through our works of charity as individual Christians and as a parish community. May we become true shepherds after the mind of Christ. May the experience of living for others renew us with God’s amazing Grace, and may we find fulfillment in the work of leading others to Christ. Amen.
They may say I am a critique of infrastructural development, but I am not. Tell me how does a Christian University that poor people cannot afford to send their children to, alleviate the problem of education in a country where the children of the poor can hardly go to school?
May God Help us to be more charitable to the Poor
I keep you and your family always in my prayers. ©Clem C. Aladi (2024)
