Please read this passage before reading the homily.
My sisters and brothers,
Today we resume reading the gospel according to Matthew for our Sunday liturgies.
Jesus has pity on the crowds. They are like sheep without a shepherd. Perhaps Jesus sees a need and also sees that he cannot handle it by himself. In this, he would be like Moses who also had to get helpers so that he would not exhaust himself working for the Lord.
Jesus calls his disciples and names twelve of them apostles, which means those who are sent. Their job is to ahead of him curing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing lepers, and driving out devils. They had received many gifts and they were to share these gifts wherever they would go.
In our Catholic tradition, the twelve Apostles are the forerunners of the bishops and some of the first disciples. If the Apostles are forerunners of bishops, the rest of the disciples are forerunners of the rest of us.
Jesus saw the crowds as sheep without a shepherd. Do we see ourselves as sheep without a shepherd or as part of those helping Jesus to shepherd others? Each of us have talents. No talent is given solely for the use of the one who has it. No talent of gift exists for the sake of itself alone, but is intended to be shared.
You share your gifts and talents with family, with friends, co-workers, other people. It is the sharing of gifts that makes our economies and political systems work. It is sharing our gifts and talents that makes this parish viable. It was so back in the 80’s and 90’s, and it is so now. It is not that we have a need for more priests, but that we have need for more disciples. Faithful disciples cause faithful spouses, and faithful families breed faithful priests. We cannot expect our priests to be holier than the other disciples, but we an expect them to be as holy as every other faithful disciple. We want the disciples to be like sheep who have a shepherd.