21 August 2024 - Wednesday of the 20th week in Ordinary Time - Pope Pius X - Ezekiel 34:1-11 - Psalm 23

In the early 20th century, three of the four popes were named Pius, so to me, it is difficult separating them and distinguishing them from one another. Today, we celebrate the first of those popes named Pius in the 20th century - Pope Pius X. Installed as pope in 1904, and serving right after the influential Pope Leo XIII, Pius X served as pope for 11 years. As a young priest, he helped his people during a terrible cholera epidemic that spread through northern Italy in the 1870s. He took as his motto as pope: “To restore all things in Christ.”  One of his important reforms along those lines was to encourage the frequent reception of holy communion, something that had gone of favor in the Church at the time. To do that, he lowered the age of reception of first communion to the age of seven, seen as the age a child could reason between right and wrong and could understand the sacrament he was receiving. He started an important reform of canon law and the reform of Church music, including the revival of Gregorian chant. He also worked to combat the philosophies of modernism and relativism, with relativism being something that pervasive now in our own day.

Every era needs renewal.  Every era has its own challenges and obstacles.  While Psalm 23 today talks about the good shepherd, our reading from Ezekiel today talks about shepherds who do not take care of their flock, who rather look for gaining advantage for themselves, not for the well-being of their sheep.  They enjoy the benefits of having a flock of sheep, drinking their milk and dressing themselves with their wool, but rather than be grateful and gracious to their flock, they are shown mistreatment in return. Ezekiel sees the shepherds of Israel, the rulers of the people, as neglecting their flock. They do not care for the weak. They do not seek out the lost.  They allow them to be preyed upon without coming to their defense. May we give thanks today for the good shepherds such as Pope Pius X who have guided the Lord’s flock throughout Church history.