Woe to the Bad Shepherds!

In last Wednesday’s reading from the prophet Ezekiel, we read about Ezekiel being told to prophesy against the shepherds of Israel because they had been pasturing themselves instead of the sheep. They had fed off of the sheep’s milk, worn their wool, and slaughtered the fatlings, but they did not pasture the sheep. They did not strengthen the weak nor heal the sick nor bind up the injured. Instead of bringing back the strayed or seeking the lost, they lorded their power over them harshly and brutally, scattering the sheep with no one to care for them. God swore that because of this, He would claim His sheep from them and put a stop to their shepherding.

The amazing thing about God’s word is that it can transcend all times and places and apply to times and situations even far in the future. This reading remains as a warning to the shepherds, but in this case not of Israel, but of the Catholic Church, i.e. the priests and bishops. The sex abuse scandals and refusal by some to uphold the Church’s teachings on marriage and gender, thus confusing the sheep they are supposed to pasture, show that they wish to pasture themselves and not the sheep, just like the shepherds of Israel did. However, God will avenge this conduct, just as Ezekiel prophesied that He would against the shepherds of Israel. What needs to happen is repentance, not for these warnings to be ignored or brushed aside. If they are ignored, God will exact the punishment that He had inflicted on the shepherds of Israel.

This is also why we need to always pray for our pastors and bishops, that they will be filled with wisdom and be intent on following the will of God for the people in their flock and not their own will. We should pray that they have the strength to persevere through the trials and tests that they encounter in their ministry and that they will not fall prey to the temptations of the devil. If they do, we need to pray for their conversion and that they will return to pasturing the sheep as they have been called to do.