Home
Reflection on this Sunday's scripture readings
The Charism of Sion
The Family of Sion
Sion in the UK and Ireland
Events
News
Our History
More about Sion
Links
Exodus 19:2-6
Psalm 99
Romans 5:6-11
Matthew 9:36-10:8
The readings today centre round the idea of call and response. In the first reading from the book of Exodus, God sets out his covenant, through Moses, with the people of Israel on Mount Sinai where God gave the whole law and bound the disparate tribes into a people. The people have learnt the extent of God's love for them when he brought them out of Egypt and protected them as an eagle protects her young. Now he is calling them to enter into a covenantal relationship with him, obeying his commandments, so that they are his possession. If they keep their part of the covenant they will be set apart from others and become a consecrated nation. Psalm 99 picks up the same idea that Israel belongs to God, as sheep belong to their shepherd.
Jesus says, in the gospel reading, that the people seemed lost, like a sheep without a shepherd. He may have been referring to the whole people in a phrase reminiscent of the prophet Ezekiel or to a group within Israel who lived on the fringes of society. He then called the twelve disciples to go out and proclaim the kingdom by curing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers and casting out devils, thus proclaiming that the kingdom is near. Jesus' command to stay within Israel corresponds to his own practice of ministering to his own people.
God is our shepherd, calling us to follow him each day and to proclaim the nearness of the kingdom by the way we live. Can you hear God calling you to follow him as the apostles did? Spend some time this week listening to God as Moses did on the mountain. What does he say to you?
Today the psalm invites us to appreciate that like Israel, we belong to God. Say the psalm prayerfully this week and allow the words to touch your heart.