天主要親自牧養祂的羊群 God shall shepherd His flock Himself

天主要親自牧養祂的羊群（谷6:34-44）

今天有不少青年人，為了種種他們不能控制的因素，感到迷惘。他們對社會，對前途失去信心，甚至怪責父母把他們帶到這個殘酷的世界來！成年人何嘗沒有這種情緒呢！他們可能已經沒有可以怪責的父母，或者父母已經是風燭殘年，不忍怪責他們了。惟一可以怪責的，就是天主。這些成年人甚至離開教會，不再信祂，以示抗議！

當天主子耶穌基督開始祂傳福音的職務時，其中一個任務，就是為猶太領袖們收拾殘局。這邊廂，司祭們渴望維持現狀，可以繼續經營聖殿，祭祀天主，他們寧願與羅馬殖民政權合作（谷15:1-3），鞏固自己的地位和利益。那邊廂，法學士與法利塞人，運用他們的專業知識，殘民自肥（12:38-40），助紂為虐。試問這群有如上主藉先知所譴責的牧者（則34:1-10），又豈能照顧到人民的靈性生活呢？天主子遂親自來兌現上主的許諾，滿足群眾身、心、靈各方面的需要（34:16, 23）。因此，十二宗徒回來向耶穌覆命時，便吸引了成千上萬的「飢民」！

十二宗徒尚未懂得教會牧養天主子民的責任，亦自知力有不逮，惟有想到遣散群眾了事。天主子於是教導他們，祇要有祂同在，即使小如芥子般的信德，足以移山（瑪17:20）；微乎其微的五餅二魚，亦足以餵飽五千人；再次兌現了上主的承諾，「你張開口，我要使它滿足。」（詠81:11）
上主，求祢給我們派遣一些隨祢心意的牧者，以智慧和明智牧養我們（耶3:15）。亞孟。
生命恩泉
圖片鳴謝：christiantoday.com

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God shall shepherd His flock Himself (Mark 6:34-44)

Nowadays many young people feel lost for various causes beyond their control. They lose faith in the society and in the future. Some even blame their parents for bringing them into this barbarian world! Adults are not immune from this kind of disappointment! Probably they don’t have parents to blame any more, or their parents are too old to blame. The only person to blame is then God. Many adult leave the Church in protest and believe God no more!

When the Son of God Jesus Christ began His public ministry to proclaim the gospel, one of the missions is to clean up the mess made by the Jewish authority. On one hand, priests wanted to maintain the status quo so that they might continue to run the Temple and offer sacrifices to God. They chose to cooperate with the Roman colonial government (Mark 15:1-3) in order to hold on to their status and benefits. On the other hand, scribes and Pharisees made use of their professional knowledge to fatten themselves at the expense of the commoners (12:38-40). They supported the oppressive rule. How could these shepherds whom God condemned through prophets (Ezekiel 34:1-10) take care of the spiritual life of the people? The Son of God came to honour God’s pledge to satiate the bodily and spiritual needs of the crowd (34:16, 23). Thus when the Twelve returned from their evangelization mission, they had attracted thousands of starving people!

The Twelve had not yet known the responsibility of the Church to shepherd the People of God. Moreover, they knew that they were not capable of discharging this herculean task. They could only think of sending the people away. Then the Son of God taught them that with Him, even faith as meagre as a mustard seed is able to move mountains (Matthew 17:20); crumbles as little as five loaves and two fish are able to feel five thousands. Once more, Jesus honours God’s pledge, “Open wide your mouth that I may fill it.” (Psalm 81:11)
Lord, send us shepherds after Your own heart who will sheperd us wisely and prudently (Jeremiah 3:15). Amen.