Let Us Become Like Jesus The Good Shepherd
Fr Dexter Brereton, CSSp ThM STL
The Gospel of the fourth Sunday of Easter normally leads us into a reflection on the mystery of leadership. Human leadership in politics, in society, in church, and in life in general. All this is subsumed under the metaphor of the shepherd. Jesus proposes himself as the ideal shepherd, the one whom all leaders are meant to follow. At the heart of the shepherd’s ministry of leadership is the fact that the shepherd deeply cares and is affected by the fate of those whom he leads. St John, in this regard, contrasts the behaviour of the shepherd with the behaviour of the ‘hireling.’
He writes:
I am the good shepherd:
The good shepherd is one who lays down his life for his sheep.
The hired man, since he is not the shepherd
And the sheep do not belong to him,
Abandons the sheep and runs away
As soon as he sees a wolf coming,
And then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep;
This is because he is only a hired man
And has no concern for the sheep.
This mystery of shepherding is exercised, across many fields of endeavour, in many professions. This year, my mind ran on teachers. As a primary (elementary) schoolboy, one of the striking things I noticed about teachers in relation to their pupils was that from time to time, a little girl or little boy would be speaking to ‘miss’ or to ‘sir’ i.e. to their teacher and by accident they would call her “mummy”, causing the other children in the class to burst into laughter and tease the embarrassed child. As I look back on it now, this was an enormous compliment to the teachers we had in those days. It was a reflexive admission on the part of us children that in the classroom, we felt safe, and not just safe, we felt ‘parented.’
This happens when teaching is more than simply a “job.” It is a profession, indeed it is a vocation, an activity that consumes the teacher, so much so that he/she deeply affects and is deeply affected by the children who are his/her pupils. This is the core of leadership in the Christian understanding: an all-consuming ministry, a vocation whose sole purpose is that others can become the people that God always wanted them to become.
Like all professions, the teaching service has also had to struggle with the behaviour of a not insignificant number who behave like ‘hired men’ and abandon the sheep (pupils) and run away. The story is told of a small rural school in Trinidad some years ago, where the entire student body was left in the care of an ‘on-the-job’ trainee (OJT) while the principal and the entire staff went out on business. The pastor of the parish was passing by, happened to notice what was going on, and sent all the children home. The following day the staff and principal had to face a disciplinary meeting with the entire range of school supervisors coming up from the Ministry of Education.
Individually and collectively, you and I are called as well to be ‘shepherds’ towards our own country. We are called to take care of its people, its institutions, and its national life. One of the most famous sayings of the late great public intellectual Lloyd Best was that Trinis are habitually ‘UNresponsible’. By unresponsible, he explained that we live here ‘as if we are on holiday.’ Too many of us move through life failing to understand that HOW we live in this country and HOW we decide to live with one another decides the kind of society that we have. It is really ultimately in our hands, and not in the hands of powerful forces from abroad. WE are the ones who care for our society and our politics like a parent cares for a child, or like a shepherd has for his sheep.
The shepherd takes pride in the sheep, in the same way, as citizens, how our country functions, how we relate to each other, has to be a matter of personal pride. I do not bring honour to myself, if I denigrate in a very personal way, the character of my political leaders, especially those with whom I may disagree politically. I do not bring honour to myself if for example, during this COVID pandemic, if I denigrate, insult and malign the officials of the Ministry of Health charged with the health of the nation. It brings me no honour if during our COVID restrictions, I disrespect the members of the Police Service charged with assuring that public health regulations are kept. It brings me no honour if I refuse to get involved in the pressing social and political issues of the day, such as agricultural reform, health care, and the Criminal-Justice system because “everyone is a crook.” Because they are for me a matter of pride, I make sure not to ‘bad-talk’, especially with foreigners and strangers, my country, my faith or my race.
Lord, I pray that we may all be found to be worthy shepherds. I pray that as shepherds we may watch carefully over our national life, over the quality of our public discourse over the functioning of our public institutions and over our politics. I pray as a Christian, along with my fellow Christians we may be worthy shepherds, taking care of our community life, doing all that we can to make sure that our communities reflect the peace and harmony and mutual respect of the Kingdom where you live and reign, forever and ever. Amen.
