A Date with Our Shepherd

For seven Wednesdays, Archbishop Hines, our Shepherd, took special time to meet the members of each of the seven Areas of the Eucharistic Community of the Faithful. Immediately after the Community Night Service, the Faithful members of the different Areas were privileged to hear him up, close, and personal. 

As our Shepherd, his flock heard his voice, his heart and his direction.  The care and the love that he has for his flock was bared to us, challenging us to heed his call for care and love for each other that the Body be built up to its maturity and bring to fullness what God intended it to be.   Here are some of the thoughts that he shared that brought encouragement, enlightenment, and excitement to the Faithful. 

There is power in the community.  Israel was divided into communities, into different tribes.  They had regular work but had different responsibilities.  They were working together and they became a powerful force.  Each had different responsibilities and tasks though each one had a job.

The community is described as a body of people, individuals with a common interest.  They had a covenant with God and with each other.  Tied together, they were powerful.  The community is our life.  If the community functions properly, it becomes mature bringing it to new level of provision.  The community should see its ability – an interest in each other lives; to have a part.  It is to say, “We belong.” If we are not doing anything, we don’t feel this.  There is a fulfillment, a peace, a joy when we do our part.

A community is a group of individuals interacting with each other.  There is the necessity of caring, of sharing, of loving, and of showing of concern.  This calls for involvement with each other and the intensity varies.   There is a responsibility towards each other.  Jesus Christ said, “We are to love our neighbor.”   Loving our neighbor is a love that God demonstrates as in John 3:16 – with care and compassion.

Knowing your community members, if one is absent during a Sunday Mass, do we bother to check if there was something that caused them not to attend? Do we care to check if there is a need?  We need to be interested to that which belongs to us.  We must check what affects them.  One’s help is in the Church – through prayer or emotional support and care.

The principle of loving is a concern for others.  We have to come back to that place.  Christ says in John 13:34, “Love one another even as I have loved you.”   There is the principle of giving in behalf of others.  It is not what we need.  We are rewarded according to our deeds, and what you give comes back.  It is the key of the Kingdom.

Leviticus 19 shares some laws with regards to caring for one another; a concern for each other like what the Father did in sending His Son.  When we do this, we fulfill that love for one another as in Romans 13:8-10, seeing also that all the commandments of God are summed up, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Evaluate our lives: have we live out the love for others?  Have we showed our care for others?  Are we able to check on others to say, “How are you?”  Do we bring them something, even a hot bowl of soup?  Do we care for those who are weak making sure that then don’t give up?

The community must begin to take care of each other.  What we do well with ourselves should be done also to our neighbors.  This is how the community grows; this is how the Church grows; this is how it can affect the lives of the people around us.

The challenge: Be sensitive!