The Shepherd in the chair

The Temporal Shepherd of such a diverse and distributed flock of members of the Roman Catholic Church is one who must hear the words of the first letter of Peter in the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary for today. The leadership is by example and not by lording it over those whom the leader guides. We often hear calls that this group must be ostracized, funds must be taken from these people and excommunication is proper for this individual. The call to “bind”, echoing the text of Matthew’s Gospel for today, is often a reference to an offence against “Catholic teaching”. Too often this “teaching” is presented as a duality. This is “right”. The other is “wrong”. Christian teachers, like Franciscan Richard Rohr exhort believers to consider the possibilities and to behave in these issues like the Eternal Shepherd and Divine Teacher, Jesus. The authorities often tried to get Jesus to “take sides”. “Who is my neighbour?”” He who is without sin...” The intimacy with the Divine to which we are invited is described by the psalmist. Psalm 23 brings in six lines an understanding of the Shepherd to which leaders can look for Divine example. The complete surrender to the Divine will puts the leadership by “thy staff and thy rod” in such a way that “I shall dwell in the house of the Lord all my days”.