The People of God: Chosen, Saved, Shepherded

Readings:
• Ex 19:2-6a
• Psa 100:1-2, 3, 5
• Rom 5:6-11
• Mt 9:36-10:8

One description of the Church that is emphasized in the documents of the Second Vatican Council is “the people of God.” The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) stated,

All men are called to belong to the new people of God. Wherefore this people, while remaining one and only one, is to be spread throughout the whole world and must exist in all ages, so that the decree of God’s will may be fulfilled. (par 13)

Unfortunately, in the years following the Council, this very biblical description was sometimes misused and interpreted with few, if any, references to its Old Testament roots and New Testament meaning.

All of today’s readings provide the Scriptural foundation needed to appreciate properly what it means to say the Church is “the people of God.”

First, it means to be chosen by God, who always initiates all communication and contact with mankind. It is God, in speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, who establishes a covenant with the Israelites that was unique: “Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people.”

This is an act of creation, of forging a “kingdom of priests, a holy nation” out of what otherwise would have been just like any other groups nomadic people living in the ancient Near East.

This is captured in succinct fashion in Psalm 100: “Know that the LORD is God; he made us, his we are; his people, the flock he tends.” The identity, purpose, and life of the people depend completely on the fact that God is who he says he is: the creator of all things, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-holy.

The people of God cannot be created or defined by man. This was true of the old Israel, and it is true of the new Israel, the Church.

Secondly, the people of God are saved by God. God, who is love, not only calls man to himself, he also provides the means for restored communion. Otherwise, reconciliation would not be possible.

“But God proves his love for us,” Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, “in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Through the death of the Son of God, men can now become sons of God by being justified through Christ’s blood, reconciled by Christ’s sacrifice, and saved by his life.

Finally, the people of God are shepherded by Christ and by those to whom he has given authority.

Jesus told his disciples to go out and proclaim, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He imparted to them the authority to act and speak in his name. The Second Vatican Council stated:

Jesus Christ, the eternal Shepherd, established His holy Church, having sent forth the apostles as He Himself had been sent by the Father; and He willed that their successors, namely the bishops, should be shepherds in His Church even to the consummation of the world.” (Lumen Gentium, 18)

To be an apostle is to be sent to do the work of the Master; the twelve apostles selected by Jesus represent the New Israel, the new “tribes” of the people of God (cf. Matt 19:28; Gal 6:16).

The composition of Matthew 9:35-10:8 is structured to emphasize this truth. Matthew 9:35-38 focuses on the work of Jesus, who preached the Gospel, healed, described the lost state of the people, prayed for laborers, and then called the twelve disciples.

Then, in Matthew 10:1-8, each of these is paralleled and fulfilled: the names of the twelve are given, the twelve were sent out by Jesus, they were sent to the “lost sheep of Israel,” and they, like their Master, healed and preached that the Kingdom was at hand. In the middle of this chiastic or symmetrical structure is this key point: Jesus “gave them authority…” (Matt 10:1).

“We are his people,” wrote the Psalmist, “the sheep of his flock.” Chosen. Saved. Shepherded.

(Note: This “Opening the Word” column was published originally in the June 15, 2008, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)