At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them
because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.
These crowds weren't meant to be without a shepherd. Yet ever since the fall people experienced feelings of trouble and of being abandoned, since they no longer had direct access to the presence of God. He no longer walked through the same garden of paradise with them in the cool of the day. It was easy to assume that their expulsion from the garden meant that God no longer cared about them as much as before. They were forced to move from a place where their every need was met to one in which they could only earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. They went from a place where they would never have died to a world marked by age, disease, and illness. Compared to their relationship with God in the garden they often felt isolated and alone. Yet there were still indications that they were not alone, that God had not really given up on them. He did not, as he might well have done, destroy them immediately. He made them clothing. And he made a promise to crush the head of the serpent who was the ultimate cause of the situation.
As time passed the consequences of the fall began to increasingly define people's experience of the world. The relationship between God and humanity became so tenuous it became possible for people to suspect that God did not exist or to accuse him of being capricious, not truly good. He tried to send shepherds to care for his people, but they often failed, using their positions as a means of exploitation, rather than for the sake of the sheep. But none of this meant that God's heart was not still with his people. The fact that he didn't immediately make the issue of sin disappear was not because he didn't care, but because he cared to much to sweep it away without drawing from it a still greater good. He never stopped wanting to be present to shepherd his flock himself. But he was patient, waiting until the fullness of time, so that the fullness of his intended relationship with humanity could be restored. When Jesus came into the world he did so at a time when people were hoping for a savior, looking for a messiah who could set them free. They had a sufficient sense of their own insufficiency, and began to cry out go God for salvation. Not everyone did, of course, but enough at least that the work could finally begin. We can't determine exactly why God chose the specific time and place he did to begin his project of restoring the world. There is always something mysterious about his timing. This is expected, since he has a higher perspective and a deeper understanding of reality than we do. But we can say for sure that he did what he did when he did because it allowed him to most perfectly show his love for us. Thus, in today's Gospel passage the crowd that was present stood in for all humanity in all the years leading up to that moment, and all the years that would follow. They stood for everyone who felt far from God, who no longer trusted, or believed, or who were desperate for him but could not find him, for all the sheep that felt alone. Jesus himself seemed to desire to reach out and embrace them all and assure them that his love for them had never wavered, would never waver, and never could.
Then he summoned his Twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out
and to cure every disease and every illness.
If the compassion of Jesus was really as we have described it, we may go on to say that the mission of his disciples, and indeed our own mission, is to continue to spread that compassion to the world. Our lives too should be signs that no one has been forgotten by God. No one has truly been abandoned. No one should need to face their troubles alone any longer. Since the fall, the snake has been trying to convince us that God either does not care about us or is in fact against us. Our lives are meant to show the world that he is, beyond all doubt, for us.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (see Romans 8:31).
We ourselves are imperfect. And God's presence is still more hidden than the poetic language of the story of creation seemed to suggest that it was for Adam and Eve. But ours is an age where God is by no means absent. We no longer need to feel alone because of the Eucharistic presence of Our Lord and the gift of his Holy Spirit. These realities mean we have direct access to a shepherd who wants to lead and guide us with such concrete specificity that the words of the prophet Isaiah can be true for us:
No longer will your Teacher hide himself,
but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher,
While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears:
"This is the way; walk in it,"
when you would turn to the right or to the left.
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