Looking to the Shepherd

The shepherd is the image that comes to mind when we reflect today on the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary. The position, in Jesus society, of the shepherd brings contradictory evidence, not surprisingly, for us to weigh as we sort out the implications of shepherds in the Bible. The great tension is between the tasks given the shepherd to live rough among the animals in poverty on the lower end of the social scale where it was difficult to be ritually clean and the image of the Divine gathering people like sheep. The shepherds who will witness the Incarnation would not be welcome in the Temple in Jerusalem. On the other hand, the image of restoration of the exiles in Babylon to communion with God in Jerusalem from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah today is made most reassuring by the description of God like a Shepherd gathering the lambs to Himself. Friar Jude Winkler notes that Psalm 23, which describes the Lord as my Shepherd, comes from this time in salvation history. Edward Morse of Creighton University understands that the restoration of the exiles was a community struggle. The flock needed to work together. Don Schwager identifies the desperation of the lost sheep, a social being like humans, who becomes distressed and neurotic in separation from the flock. Papa Francesco, in word and deed is exhorting believers to a renewed assessment of the role of the Church to be Shepherd to the lost and desperate. This action will require us to set aside the niceties of social position and comfort in the flock and live the experience of those outside and rejected who search the lost and gather them to communion with the Incarnate who showed Himself to lowliest, living rough in the hills around Bethlehem. The experience of living the Word and depending on Providence is a proclamation of the Glory of God which is centred with the lost sheep and their experience. This vision of the New Jerusalem in the eyes of lost sheep is direction for the Church.