Deacon John Writes:
If you travel around in Jordan you will see shepherds everywhere. They are part of the landscape. The Bedouins who tend the sheep sleep on hillsides under tents; they stand watch in large empty fields while the sheep graze on weeds and dust and sand. Your vehicle is sure to come to a halt in the middle of the road while a shepherd leads his flock across the road. One shepherd is Mohammed. He is in his early 20s, shy. He was asked how long he’d been a shepherd.
“Four years,” he said and added: “its alright, but it’s boring.” It’s not that exciting for the sheep, either. They aren’t pure lambs with “fleece as white as snow.” They all look as white as mud—hardly the image one gets from the nursery rhyme. Mr Google on the Internet, informed me about a shepherd in Italy named Fabrizio Innocenzi who oversees about 60 sheep in the hills of Roviano, 40 miles east of Rome. He said that sheep actually need a shepherd, because they have no natural hierarchy, no leader of the flock. “The sheep learn to trust the shepherd”, Innocenzi said, “as they hear and understand the voice, the smell, the behaviour of the person who is looking after them every day”. He said “a shepherd needs to be someone who is in tune with nature, decisive and willing to bear the long hours, inclement weather, hard work and sacrifice—and do it out of devotion to his flock. A good shepherd should not be afraid of anything.” Doesn’t that describe Christ?
In the gospel for this Sunday Jesus says to us “I am the good shepherd, a good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” This Easter season, with the fragrance of Easter flowers still in the air and multiple alleluias we cannot forget the hard wood of Calvary. We cannot forget how this good shepherd laid down his life for us. He didn’t do it because we have “fleece as white as snow.” Far from it. We are as muddy and as ordinary and as unclean as those sheep in Jordan. We aren’t always beautiful.
But the Good Shepherd, who is Christ, loves us anyway. He calls us to love one another as the shepherd does his sheep. This is our challenge. If we are to be imitators of Christ, we must be willing to be more than sheep. We must also be shepherds—good shepherds to each other and good shepherds of our faith. We must be unafraid, devoted, steadfast. We need to support those who are frail…nurture those who are weak…lead back those who are lost…comfort those who are afraid…love those who are covered with dust from the journey.
This is what a good shepherd does.
This is what Christ has done for us.
This is what we must do for each other.