Be Catholic, Be Sheepish

Sunday, May 3rd, 2020

Today Jesus resolves a lot of our ecclesial hangups by pointing out something essential: He is the Good Shepherd, and we are members of his flock.

This doesn’t sound that original. Yet a lot of our ecclesial troubles are because we forget one or other of these points. Or one point really: if Jesus is our Good Shepherd, then, of itself, this reality means that our reality is that we are a member of his flock. A shepherd, by definition, is one who is shepherding a flock: and a flock, by definition, is those sheep shepherded by the shepherd. Or they are a mob, a rabble.

And our readings today gush with praise of the Good Shepherd. “You had gone astray like sheep but now you have come back to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.” says Peter. “The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.” says the psalm. “When he has brought out his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice.” says Jesus. Even clearer is Peter’s text: 

Hearing this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the apostles, ‘What must we do, brothers?’ ‘You must repent,’ Peter answered ‘and every one of you must be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise that was made is for you and your children, and for all those who are far away, for all those whom the Lord our God will call to himself.’

We see very clearly here that our flockedness is not some smoky personal pipe dream but really something which reaches out to us into our heart, and has external as well as inner consequences for how I can live my life from now on. You cannot do your own thing anymore. Those days are over, and when the idea comes, you know its the old man, the old self, trying to get back on top. But that is not what we are living now. Now, I am Catholic. Public rituals are done to me, interior rituals are done to my soul, by God through our brothers and sisters. I can’t do or live or choose like I used to before: now I am carried along, drawn by this immense body of fraternity, of divine communion with the Creator - who now direct and guide. That is what I have chosen and embracing with all my heart and soul.

For that’s the question isn’t it: do I really consent to being part of something I am not in charge of? Do I really agree to being directed by others? To remaining amongst the faults and frauds and plods of these all round me? That’s being Catholic my friend. Those who want to run their own show - that is alien to a Catholic. We don’t want things to be done by ourselves: we do everything with everyone.

It is this which is so often our problem. We live in a post-modern world. Despite our best efforts, we are each coloured and interfered with by it. You see it in the way we respond to change, and to not changing. We forget so often, well after we have gotten on our high horse and ridden away, that actually - it’s not mainly your view, the program is not one of your sentiment. It’s the Lord’s project. The Catholic Church is the Lord’s Body - which has as her mission to imprint herself on our body, our soul, and what we do in daily life. Man is a communal being, God is a Trinity, and our freedom and being is conditional on us being seated in that communion of men of which the Trinity is head. Praise God we are not alone - but with each other.

Let us pray:

“Almighty ever-living God,

lead us to a share in the joys of heaven,

so that the humble flock may reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before.

Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.”