Homily of the sixteenth Sunday of ordinary time

Cycle B Jer 23, 1-6; Ep 2, 13-18; Mk 6: 30-34

"He had compassion on them because they walked like sheep without a shepherd" (Mk 6:34).

Ki 'oolal lake' ex ka t 'aane' ex ich maya, kin tsik te ex ki 'imak oolal and a puksi' ikal. Jesus ku beetik ba 'ax ya ya' alaj ki ichkelen yuum, uchik u taal wuay lu ue u u u u u u u u u u u u u u u u u u u u u u u ; ato xan kalam tamano & # 39; ob

Very dear brothers and sisters, I greet you with the usual affection and I wish you all the good in the Lord, on this 16th Sunday of ordinary time .

On Wednesday, July 18, SER Don Pedro Sergio of Jesus Mena Díaz completes his first year of being ordained bishop. His pastoral work with a servant during this first year was very intense, multiplying the episcopal presence throughout our archdiocese. Let us give thanks to the Lord who wanted to give us another successor of the apostles as a support for my ministry in favor of our particular Church.

Last Sunday, we heard in the holy Gospel according to Mark, how did Jesus send the twelve apostles to his first mission? Today we have the following of history as the apostles return from their apostles. mission and want to tell Jesus how that happened, but there are so many people around him that they do not have time to eat. So Jesus invites the twelve to rest in an isolated place.

Jesus is the good shepherd who does not think of himself, because he also needs to eat and rest; However, he thinks more of the rest of his apostles and the time that they need intimacy to share his missionary experience. Without despising the crowd, Jesus wants to dedicate time to his little group from which will come the church columns because as in the construction of a building, the foundations and columns must be very well the same is true in the Church because of the multitudes that the apostles must then serve.

This is the same reason why today and always the bishop has to devote a special time to his priests, deacons, seminarians and religious, because then they they are. 39, address the crowd. Like Jesus, we must learn to dedicate ourselves to everyone, but in the same way, we learn to take space for the small group, for the individual person; everyone must see how to apply this teaching in his family, his work, the school, society and all humankind.

Jesus "was frustrated" with this good intention of living alone with his disciples, because the crowd realized that he had embarked with the twelve and was running on earth, so that when he was landing, Jesus was already waiting on the other side of the lake. We must learn from the crowd to follow Jesus and not to let him out of sight, even if sometimes we have to make more effort to follow him.

Perhaps you or I, instead of Jesus, would have been furious at the people if they did not let us eat, rest, or carry out a necessary personal project; Jesus, on the other hand, when he saw the crowd, "felt sorry for them, because they walked like sheep without a shepherd" (Mk 6:34) and he began to take care of them by teaching them a lot of things. For us, Jesus continues to teach us with this testimony.

Ask us for priests, so that we may be tireless in our devotion to the People of God, to forget a little, if necessary, our desires, our personal projects and rights, as good as they are. We must ask the same thing to our governors and to all officials, so that they address themselves to people, as well as to the small group, to each person, with the respect that their human dignity deserves , as would the best of the merchants. to win the customer.

In the first reading of the book of the prophet Jeremiah, the prophecy of the Shepherd is presented with a capital letter, which will personally bring together the flock, as well as the shepherds that He Himself will give to His people, saying with these words: "I will gather the rest of my sheep for myself … I will give them pastors to feed them" (Jer 23: 3-4). St. John Paul II in 1992 gave us an apostolic exhortation on the formation of priests in the present situation, which he called "Pastores dabo vobis", a name that means "I will give you pastors". Although we value and trust the gift the Lord promises to give to our pastors, the Church can never stop asking the owner of the harvest to send workers into their fields (Mt 9: 38) or to direct the new generations. a clear and courageous vocation proposal, helping them to discern the truth of God's call for them to respond generously; nor can it neglect to take special care of the training of presbyterium candidates "(VDP # 2). Let us help so that there are many young people responding to the Lord's call to the priesthood, so that our seminar in Yucatan has the spiritual, material, academic and all kinds of means for a better formation of our future priests.

Psalm 22 today we proclaim, in several versions of the Bible, that it appears as Psalm 23. Christians of other denominations in general, know it as Psalm 23 and the recite from memory with a lot of devotion. With the same dedication and trust, we must recite it today and always say, "The Lord is my shepherd, nothing will be missed". All Christians must be guided by this good shepherd, because he will always lead us on the right path by giving up all the "crooked" paths that evil offers us; and we must also rejoice not only in the accomplishments that we can achieve in this life under his direction, but above all in the security for eternal life, as the psalm says: "I will live in the house of the Lord for years unending.

The second reading, taken from the Letter of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians, shows us how Christ broke the barrier that existed between the Jews and all the heathen, to make sure that he was not guilty. there was only one people reconciled, in peace for their blood. overthrown on the cross. The most perfect unity among peoples is attained by the merits of Christ, but also by his teachings.

If any one sowed division under the name of Christ, he would be someone who does not understand the true teachings of the Lord because he is our peace. . All acts of violence that take place in Mexico and elsewhere in the world are not the work of Christ or a true Christian, not even because the perpetrator of the violence carried a cross or another image around the neck, since many murderers are full of Catholic images that they use without respect as lucky charm, blending them with images that are nothing Christian. Pray for unity and peace in our Mexico, so full of murders and divisions. Let it be a new time to build unity.

There is much to pray for peace, justice and unity among people today. Think, for example, of all the cities where people are forced to flee by violence, insecurity and poverty, into cities that have become destinations, like Brazil, Chile, the United States, United and even our own city. Unity between peoples could solve the serious problems of migration, refuge and human trafficking. Pray for Venezuela where the humanitarian crisis continues to hurt our brothers, expelling many of them out of the country.

The presidency of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM) asked us that this Sunday, July 22, all Catholics of Latin America and the Caribbean, we pray the Lord so that Nicaragua can find the necessary paths to peace, unity and justice. The cause of this social instability comes from the social security reform, which was dictated by the executive branch of Nicaragua without the support of private companies and the people. Not only did businessmen protest against the measure, but people also expressed dissatisfaction with the government's decision and decided to take to the streets to protest.

The bishops of Nicaragua tried to negotiate to reach a table of dialogue, which was realized but no satisfactory agreement was found. Government forces violently suppressed street demonstrations, causing many deaths and injuries. Even a bishop, Bishop Silvio Báez, was injured while peacefully seeking the release of a group of young refugees in a church. Now the Nicaraguan government sees the Church as its enemy and there are threats and attacks against some bishops. Pray for our sister church.

Have a good week. Praised either Jesus Christ

+ Gustavo Rodríguez Vega

Archbishop of Yucatán