“When [Jesus]…saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.”
Mark 6:34
Today’s readings focus our attention not upon those shepherds who
lead their sheep by teaching them, but what happens when their
shepherds don’t lead their sheep by teaching them.
The first reading rails against those shepherds, saying “Woe to the
shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture.” The woe
to come? “You have not cared for them, but I will take care to
punish your evil deeds.”
The gospel then tells us that Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for
the people in the vast crowd “for they were like sheep without a
shepherd.” Moved with pity, Jesus “began to teach them [the] many
things” they should have otherwise known—if only their shepherds had
taught them.
That condition of moral blindness—not being able to see one’s actual
moral condition—doesn’t absolve that person from the choices one has
made to be blind to what’s immoral. But, today’s scripture reminds
those whom God has sent to save people from their moral blindness
that they are grievously at fault, in particular, because they
haven’t taught people either how not to fall into the condition that
led to moral blindness or how they might extricate themselves from
their condition of moral blindness. Those shepherds have failed
their sheep, not teaching them about those cultural, social,
political, and religious errors that ultimately lead to moral
blindness.
One of the courses I teach at Villanova is “Leadership Ethics.” It’s
required of our Master’s degree students who are preparing to lead
public service agencies, like municipal and township government
offices, federal agencies—like the FBI, CIA, Defense Department, and
offices in the executive and judicial branches—as well as in
non-profits—like social service agencies, schools, hospitals,
foundations and as well.
I’ve been teaching this course for more than two decades and, at
first, I was amazed at what my students didn’t know about ethics. I
had thought that graduate students would have been introduced to the
basic foundations of ethics and ethical reasoning during their
undergraduate years. But, what I found was that the very basic
stuff I was taught in junior high school—fundamental concepts like
natural law, deliberation, rights and responsibilities, and the
difference between freedom and liberty—my graduate students not only
didn’t know but also, I found after a bit of interrogation,
apparently had never been taught.
At first and unlike Jesus, I didn’t feel pity for my students. No,
I was astonished.
Reflecting back over the past two decades, I wouldn’t say that
things have gotten any worse, but they certainly haven’t gotten any
better.
However, I now find myself feeling pity for my students and, as
today’s
gospel notes of Jesus,
“having to teach them many things.”
I feel pity for my students because it’s amply evident they’re
desperately searching for happiness. The problem is that they’re
seeking to find it in all of the wrong places. Most believe that
true happiness is found in a career that pays well, in a cornucopia
of disposable material possessions that career affords, and in
uncommitted “hook up” relationships. They very much believe those
are what brings true happiness.
One of the basic
concepts
I teach my students is that “true happiness” is found only “in that
which you can never lose possession of.” I also offer vivid examples
about how my students actually live in fear of losing all of those
material things and relationships they value so much.
Suddenly, my students begin thinking about some very important
issues in their lives and evidence that they’re beginning to view
things a bit differently.
At least in the classroom, the really good news is that most of my
students over the years have resembled a Shamwow, that is, they
begin to soak up a whole lot of knowledge and understanding and
develop some practical wisdom in a very short time. Well, maybe not
twenty times their weight as the commercial claims, but a quite a
bit nonetheless. Then, most students begin asking some very good
questions and, as they puzzle through the landmines associated with
the terrain of ethical theory and resolving ethical dilemmas, it’s
easy to see them beginning to make more principled decisions and
becoming more critical of the trapdoors which they now identify many
people in our culture unwittingly falling through.
I have no knowledge about whether my students translate those
ethical principles into their lives after they finish the course.
But, I do know that at least momentarily, they saw something they
never thought they see, examining things they never thought they’d
examine, and evaluating what all of this means practically in terms
of their lives. At least on that score, I’m pretty confident that
I’ve done my part.
Just this week, a student who just completed leadership ethics sent
me the following email:
Fr. Jacobs:
Thank you for an enlightening semester. I often left class feeling
like I ran a mental marathon which is a good thing because I believe
that means that I was engaged with the material and truly enjoyed
the discourse.
This is a particularly telling email because this student is, at
best, an agnostic, and at a minimum, a materialist hedonist. At
least, he’s thought a bit.
But, I wonder,
“What
about the parents of my students who are the first and are supposed
to be the best shepherds of their sheep—their children—especially in
matters of faith and morals?”
Why is it that my students—graduate students, most of whom are in
their late-20s and 30s—are utterly clueless about the fundamental
ethical concepts I was taught in junior high school? I can deal
with the fact that they don’t practice those fundamental ethical
concepts, but that they’ve never been taught them?
Could it be their parents failed in their God-given right and
responsibility to shepherd their children?
I don’t know the answer to that question but perhaps some of their
parents tried very hard and succeeded. However, I see little
evidence of that in my classroom.
Perhaps most of their parents tried and tried…but failed. Today,
they see the debilitating effects that our secular and
consumer-driven culture and economy have had upon their children.
Quite likely, these parents feel neither astonishment—after all,
they saw the trainwreck coming a long time ago—nor pity. Instead,
these parents feel profoundly sad. This outcome—a life of
make-believe happiness that’s as shallow as a saucer—isn’t what they
ever wished for their children. However, in an effort not to lose
their children, many of these parents decided no longer to discuss
those “hot button” issues—that is, to be moved by pity to teach
their children the many things these parents know are the cause of
the spiritual void—that moral blindness—which their children are
experiencing.
Today, their children are “like sheep without a shepherd.”
Then, too, perhaps most parents kept trying to educate their
children, only to find the resistance they would experience so
debilitating to their marriages and family lives that they decided
“to keep the peace at all costs”…meaning “moral muteness” or
perhaps, worse yet, “moral impotence.” Wearied by years of trying
to teach their children to “get it,” these parents finally gave up
fighting against what felt like an overwhelming tide powered by a
secular and consumer-driven culture and economy whose members
believe that happiness is found in consuming more and more and
throwing away more and more, only to consume more and more and to
throw away more and more. Sad to say, these parents also feel
neither astonishment nor pity. What they felt was exasperation.
They then decided to “give up the good fight.”
Today, their children are “like sheep without a shepherd.”
It might also be the case that most parents really didn’t care much
about the religious education of their children, except to do what
was minimally required to get them baptized, to receive first Holy
Communion, and to get confirmed. After that, these parents left
their children to fend for themselves. Observing their parents,
these children received no instruction in the practice of their
faith because it meant little or nothing to their parents. Living
their lives—the lives that God gave them—today they’re completely
disconnected from the source of their lives.
Today, their children are “like sheep without a shepherd.”
It’s very easy to point the finger of blame at the Church hierarchy
and the clergy for their failure to shepherd those parents. Perhaps
that’s been the case for the past five decades, in those bishops and
priests didn’t teach the Church’s faith and morals for fear of
upsetting people, losing parishioners, and ultimately, looking for
their validation from human beings, rather than teaching their sheep
God’s revealed Truth.
The first reading rails against those shepherds, saying: “Woe to the
shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture.” The woe
to come? “You have not cared for them, but I will take care to
punish your evil deeds.”
Let’s remember, however, that God has entrusted not just bishops,
priests, parents, and indeed every Christian with the mission to
shepherd others by the witness of their lives. With all those who
are suffering from moral blindness around us today, are we moved
with pity? And, if we do experience that pity, are we moved to
teach them about many things, especially God’s truth as that’s
revealed in Scripture and in the faith and morals of the Church?
Or, like those failed shepherds, are we blind to our failure to be
moved to pity and to teach about many things as Jesus did?
The first reading also rails against those shepherds, saying: “Woe
to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture.”
The woe to come? “You have not cared for them, but I will take care
to punish your evil deeds.”
The good news is that we aren’t without hope, as God’s revealed
Truth is readily available to us. All we need to do is to avail
ourselves of those riches of Scripture and Tradition. Their lessons
will heal our spiritual blindness, assist us to see the condition
into which we have we have fallen and by experiencing salvation
through God’s revealed Truth, will be moved by pity for those who’ve
fallen into the same condition, to teach them many things.
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