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The Gospel reading is a plea for help from a world that longs for the Church this Sunday, the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A.
You can tell the words are inspired by the Holy Spirit, because what St. Matthew wrote two millennia ago expresses precisely what is missing from parishes in America today.
In the Gospel, the Holy Spirit describes for Americans the people whose homes fill our parishes.
“At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd,” it says.
Isn’t this a description of our own neighborhoods? All around us, people are suffering and even dying due to precisely the problems we have powerful answers to.
Sex and personal identity issues are at crisis levels. STDs are at record highs. Girls are facing skyrocketing depression, with sexual pressure cited as a major cause. Young people who question their identity aren’t culture warriors but victims. But Catholics — in our institutions and in our homes — are doing little to promote the Church’s sexual teachings.
Poverty is a major problem because of the breakdown of the family. Newspapers from San Antonio, Texas, to Richmond, Va., acknowledge that men who abandon their responsibility to women and children are the main reason behind the rise in poverty.
Churches are materially generous to people in need, but we are less effective at sharing the Church’s teachings could make huge strides against generational poverty.
Communities are fracturing, with social isolation on the rise. In 2022, the United States saw the highest rates of deaths of despair ever. Our neighbors are lonely and hurting and our parishes are not gathering them into Christ’s arms.
In short, record numbers of people are “troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd” at precisely the time when the Church in America has more than 17,000 parishes that could help, spread far and wide. Better: We have a highly educated laity who have been told by a Vatican Council that we are front-line troops in the battle for souls.
So why are we doing so little? The Gospel explains that, too.
Continued below.
You can tell the words are inspired by the Holy Spirit, because what St. Matthew wrote two millennia ago expresses precisely what is missing from parishes in America today.
In the Gospel, the Holy Spirit describes for Americans the people whose homes fill our parishes.
“At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd,” it says.
Isn’t this a description of our own neighborhoods? All around us, people are suffering and even dying due to precisely the problems we have powerful answers to.
Sex and personal identity issues are at crisis levels. STDs are at record highs. Girls are facing skyrocketing depression, with sexual pressure cited as a major cause. Young people who question their identity aren’t culture warriors but victims. But Catholics — in our institutions and in our homes — are doing little to promote the Church’s sexual teachings.
Poverty is a major problem because of the breakdown of the family. Newspapers from San Antonio, Texas, to Richmond, Va., acknowledge that men who abandon their responsibility to women and children are the main reason behind the rise in poverty.
Churches are materially generous to people in need, but we are less effective at sharing the Church’s teachings could make huge strides against generational poverty.
Communities are fracturing, with social isolation on the rise. In 2022, the United States saw the highest rates of deaths of despair ever. Our neighbors are lonely and hurting and our parishes are not gathering them into Christ’s arms.
In short, record numbers of people are “troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd” at precisely the time when the Church in America has more than 17,000 parishes that could help, spread far and wide. Better: We have a highly educated laity who have been told by a Vatican Council that we are front-line troops in the battle for souls.
So why are we doing so little? The Gospel explains that, too.
Continued below.
This Sunday, the Holy Spirit Clearly Had 2023 America in Mind With This Gospel
The Gospel reading is a plea for help from a world that longs for the Church. Will the Church respond?
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