Who are the lost sheep?

Last updated on: April 8, 2017 at 7:33 am by Jane the Actuary

Who are the lost sheep? 2017-04-08T07:33:02-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Because, you know, Jesus compared himself to a shepherd, leaving the 99 to search for the lost sheep.

After my prior post, reacting to Cupich announcing more anti-violence and anti-poverty efforts by the archdiocese, I was visualizing Cupich defenders saying that he was going after the lost sheep, the prodigal son, as Jesus did, and that I had the Bad Attitude of the older son, whining that he wasn’t getting enough attention.

But sometimes it feels like the reverse is true.

I read somewhere that the Archdiocese of Chicago is 44% Hispanic.

And you’ve likely read, as I have, descriptions of the Hispanic community as faithfully Catholic. It seems like every report of illegal immigrants fearful of being deported depicts them as model community members, volunteers and regular attendees at their parish.

They may be poor, many of them may “not have their papers in order,” as the euphemism goes, they may have trouble keeping their children out of trouble, they may live in neighborhoods with high crime rates, and they may be short on money to put in the collection plate, but they are, we’re told, devout and faithful Catholics.

Which means that they aren’t the lost sheep.

Who are the lost sheep?

Yes, of course, the perpetrators of that crime, the gangbangers.

But that’s a very narrow understanding of lost sheep-ness.

And, really, there’s a lot of materialism implicit in the notion that only among the poor are there lost sheep – it implies that material prosperity is all that anyone really needs, so we just have to boost the prosperity of the poor, and all will be well.

But from the perspective of a bishop, all can hardly be “well” if, among those with material prosperity, there is spiritual poverty — assuming that said bishop cares about the Gospel.

If a social services organization shuts down because none of the people in its service area need any social services any longer, that’s great. But a church is not a social services organization.

And remember that Jesus ministered to the poor and the rich as well, including Matthew the tax collector.

The suburbs have plenty of lost sheep. We have people who have abandoned church either because of the recent scandals, or using that as an excuse, or for all the other reasons people stop attending church. We have lots of people who never grew up with any kind of faith tradition at all. We have people who are nominally Catholic, but prioritize their kids’ travel sports activities when mass is “inconvenient” or have become indifferent to attending mass without even seeking out excuses, or who may continue to attend mass at least every now and again but abandon the involvement in church activities that prior generations would have had, because they say, “our lives are too busy,” and who don’t enroll their children in religious education.

And, once again last night, at our monthly CFM group meeting, we talked about this, but without any idea what to do. The parish leadership tries, but they haven’t figured out a magic bullet either.

So, yes, I’m in bad mood, and yes, I know that it’s more complex than that, and that statistics show that it’s the poor who are more often “losing their religion,” but it still p****** me off when Cupich seems to focus his time on politics, and, yes, poverty-alleviation issues, and shrugs off the spiritual needs of his flock with the assumption that that’ll take care of itself, or that it’s somehow other people’s job.

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ALost_sheep_on_farm_track._-_geograph.org.uk_-_368111.jpg; Johnny Durnan [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Uncategorized

Previous Post

April 7, 2017

Cupich says we should all just pack up

Next Post

April 10, 2017 (Not) flying the friendly skies

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many fish were caught in the miraculous catch in John?

Select your answer to see how you score.

153 150 200 100