Parish Missions

Where Is the Good Shepherd?

The cover story in the most recent issue of Celebration,

a national liturgy monthly, discusses the effects of a

growing clericalism on the role of the laity in the way

we worship.

In the current issue of U.S. Catholic, the lead story

focuses on the “priestly style” evidenced in some of the

recently ordained, which seems to evoke the paternalism

of ages past and greater division in the future.

A parishioner at a parish I visited recently expressed

nothing less than “shock” when, on a television news

broadcast on Easter Sunday, she saw the Pope seated on

a golden throne with gold miter and vestments.

In last weekend’s New York Times, columnist Nicholas

Kristof wrote a challenging piece about the contemporary

Catholic Church. His analysis was based on what he sees

as two churches: one a male-dominated, dogma driven,

institution; the other a community of servants tending to the

needs of the least.

Bombarded everyday with even more damaging news for the Church from round the world, we come to the celebration of Good Shepherd Sunday, with Scriptures that speak of conflict and diversity contrasted with the image of the Good Shepherd. It is part of the story of the fledging Christian community of the first century. Combating the forces from within and from without, the early church faced crisis after crisis, but was ultimately calmed and healed by the image of the Risen Lord.

That image was first and foremost found in the Eucharist. It was the memory of that Last Supper in which Jesus offered his Body and his Blood “for you and for all that sins may be forgiven” that sustained the early disciples in times of turmoil and uncertainty. Throughout this season of Easter, the Scriptures keep going back to the Eucharist as the sacrament of the Divine Covenant that asserts that God’s love knows no bounds.

A more earthy symbol of that Covenant has been, from the earliest days, the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep; who shelters and protects them from all harm; who leaves the ninety-nine faithful and searches out the one who is lost; who knows his sheep intimately and embraces them on behalf of his Father; and who yearns that they all may be one. The image of God as Shepherd in the Hebrew Testament and Christ as the Good Shepherd of the Christian Testament has offered comfort and solace for millennia.

But we might very well ask, “Where is the Good Shepherd today?”

Kristof of the Times offers one image of the Catholic Church that is very close to the image of the Good Shepherd. Over the years his travels gave him ample opportunity to witness the Church around the world. What did he find?

the grass-roots Catholic Church that does far more

good in the world than it ever gets credit for,

the church that supports extraordinary aid organizations…

saving lives every day, and that operates superb

schools that provide needy children an escalator out

of poverty,

the nuns and priests in Congo, toiling in obscurity to

feed and educate children,

the Brazilian priest fighting AIDS,

the Maryknoll Sisters in Central America and the

Cabrini Sisters in Africa,

priests, nuns and lay workers toiling to make a

difference.

So from these images, he challenges the institutional church

to take inspiration from that sublime--even divine--

side of the Catholic Church, from those church

workers whose magnificence lies not in their

vestments, but in their selflessness.

The Church is currently being imaged by the media as a male-dominated institution. It’s time for the Church, the People of God, to assert their true identity. The Church is the faithful who, by what they do and say everyday, give witness to the presence of the Good Shepherd in our world. The Church is the parish priests who faithfully fulfill their call as servant leaders. The Church is the religious men and women whose lives proclaim self-sacrifice for the least and the lost. And yes, the Church is the bishops who are Christ-like shepherds.

Like the Church of the Acts of the Apostles, our contemporary Church struggles with its identity, with its mission. But like them, we put our trust in the Good Shepherd to be the model of discipleship in our day. Like them, we celebrate in the Eucharist the reality of the Risen Lord moving in and through us to bring comfort and solace to troubled times. It’s time the Church was seen as the Good Shepherd.

That's where you come in!