I am the good shepherd,
and I know mine and mine know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I will lay down my life for the sheep.
In March of 2013, shortly after his surprise election as Bishop of Rome, the new Pope Francis celebrated the traditional Chrism Mass for the priests of his diocese in St. Peter’s Basilica. This Mass which is celebrated in every Diocese of the world normally during Holy Week is an opportunity for the chief shepherd of the local church to speak with affection to his priestly brothers as they minister to God’s people of the local church.
In his soon to be characteristic style, Francis ‘raised heads’ as he spoke these words: This I ask you: be shepherds, with the “smell of the sheep”, make it real, as shepherds among your flock, fishers of men.
In other words, Francis was challenging all who take up the call to serve in ordained ministry to immerse themselves into the joys and sorrows, hopes and disappointments, loves and loses of the people they are privileged to serve.
The Fourth Sunday of the Easter Season with its Gospel story of the Good Shepherd has traditionally been an opportunity to focus on the vocation of the ordained minister. There is probably no more apt image for those in ministry than the image of the Good Shepherd who is attuned to the voice of his sheep. It is an acquired and highly skilled art to ‘know,’ really ‘know’ the sound of those he leads. It is an art cultivated over years. The sheep are not just some amorphous mass of livestock but he knows them individually with all their unique quirks, strengths and liabilities.
So too, the good minister of the Gospel, never views his role as merely a ‘gate-keeper’ but far more a ‘bridge-builder.’ He is far more concerned about leading others to life-giving water and the food of eternity than letting them languish in the desert without adequate eternal food or drink. ‘Gate-keeper’ shepherds say far more about the shepherd and their myopic understanding of God’s immense mercy, love and forgiveness, than ‘bridge-builder’ shepherds who see the promise and fulfillment of that amazing grace with the dawn of each new day.
My friends, let us remember each day our latter-day Shepherds that they may, indeed, be Good and truly worthy of the calling they have received. Alleluia!