Jesus’ role as a Good Shepherd is addressed in this Sunday’s Gospel. He loves those in his care and is willing to put his life in jeopardy should harm come to them. Jesus’ witness is that of a committed and loving friend and is distinguished from a hired hand who gives the appearance of responsibility but cowardly allows wolves to terrorize and do harm.
In our day, cowardly hired hands describe U.S. politicians. Wolves describe Militarism’s capitalists who hire them to assist in fleecing laborers across the world. The unrelenting assault of corporate wolves on workers is persistently facilitated by their hired political class that refuses to do its duty for the people in their care. This week marks the 2nd anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory disaster in Bangladesh in which 1,138 people were killed when a dilapidated nine story building, used by plunderers Walmart, J.C. Penny, and others, collapsed. The building was emblematic of the corporate retail industry’s dangerous conditions and abusive policies which are persistently facilitated by politicians unwilling to pass basic legal safeguards. Similar collusion is apparent in Obama’s forthcoming commercial pact that is preying on global workers, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Two years in the making, the TPP is a massive corporate trade agreement (12 nations controlling 40% of the world’s economy), portions of which are known only through leaked documents. This week the U.S. Senate Finance committee approved a bill to fast-track the secret TPP, whose harm to workers is broad and deep. Rights of workers gained through unions for a living wage, nondiscrimination, safe conditions, protection against child exploitation, to organize, collectively bargain, and strike have all been eroded with successive trade deals – NAFTA, CAFTA, the WTO’s inclusion of China – and now the TPP.
Forces of greed and those who have given themselves over to that force are preying on the sheep. Are we holding strong in our commitment to our brothers and sisters or are we running away?
Prayer: We hold in prayer all those workers killed for the sake of plunder.
Question: What would happen if instead of seeking comfort from the Good Shepherd, people became the Good Shepherd willing to care for others being preyed upon?
April 26, 2015 Gospel John 10:11-18 Fourth Sunday of Easter