Who are the sheep, who are the shepherds?

April 21, 2024

Some years ago, a young priest at a Sunday homily preached about how he ‘saved’ a Hindu family from their devil worship by asking them to throw away all their idols.  After the Mass, my wife asked me to speak to the priest, which I did, by challenging his understanding of the Hindu religion or the current Catholic teachings about other religions. My wife chipped in with the suggestion that there could have been many mixed marriage couples in the congregation and this was a deep insult to them.  What is interesting is that though we spoke to the priest after most of the congregation had left, there were still a few standing around, and it is they who were deeply upset and asked me who was I, as a lay Catholic, to challenge a priest.  Even when I explained that in fact I had taught many of the current priests including the present Parish priest when he was in the Seminary, those few lay Catholics present could just not stomach that a lay person could challenge a priest.

I bring this up because there is often a tendency to read today’s Gospel reading with an understanding that the sheep in the reading refer to us, lay Catholics, while the shepherds refer to our clergy. And particularly from the time of Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945), the word sheep has the connotation of a timid, docile person who blindly follows the leadership without thinking for themselves. This is further embedded in Catholic minds by the use of the term ‘shepherds’ in many Catholic documents when referring to the clergy in the Church.  

 

This is dangerous because language, of course, controls not only the way we think, but even how we act. And it is this understanding of sheep that is ingrained in so many Catholics that we have a well-known statement describing the ‘role’ of the laity as being nothing else than to ‘pray, pay and obey’.

 

But was Jesus calling the non-clergy to behave like sheep in the matter of living out our Christian commitment?  The first reading makes it clear that Peter, who was part of the crowd who could be considered the ‘sheep’ that Jesus referred to, did not see himself as a sheep in the sense explained above.  Peter, of course, later was designated as a leader and so many might say that that is why he did not behave like a docile obedient sheep. But the practice of the early Church should make us realize that neither were the other members of the church community meant to function as ‘sheep’. So, for example, at the first Council of Jerusalem, every person present, not just the leaders, but even the new converts like Paul (who had not yet been formally recognised as a leader), were able to challenge Peter on the issue of circumcision and other religious practices.  Peter, as the leader, finally sums up the decisions of the Council, but this decision is the considered view of the majority of those present. Later Paul makes this active (non-sheep) role of every Christian very clear when he writes in his first letter to the Corinthians:

Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. … All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.(1 Cor 12:4-7, 11)

 

So, according to Paul, every member of the Church community is given a different gift by the spirit and so we all have a responsibility to offer our unique gifts in the service of the Lord. So none of us is meant to be a ‘sheep’.  Each of us has something to offer in service to the Church community and the world.  If we have not identified our own specific ‘gifts’, or if we are failing to use our gifts to shape the church community and the world around us, then we are failing to be active followers of Christ. Again Paul makes this very clear in one of his other letters when he writes that each one’s gift is given to that person to "equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ". (Ephesians 4:12).  It is precisely because a large number of Christians over the ages have chosen to do this with deep integrity and even in the face of much suffering caused by Church authorities and others, that the Christian and Catholic faith has grown and has not remained stagnant in its teachings and practices.  A good example of this is the change in the Catholic Church’s relationship with Protestant Churches.  In 1928 Pope Pius XI condemned the ecumenical movement that tried to bring the Churches together, in keeping with the traditional teaching that Protestants were heretics. Around 35 years later, Vatican 2 encouraged the ecumenical movement (Document, “Unitatis Redintegratio” of Vatican 2) based on a revised understanding that other Christian Churches were also Christian, and thus in effect encouraged the value of learning/thinking about the Christian faith from other perspectives.  

 

Of course there are roles in every large human organisation, and as Paul clarifies, every one does not fulfil the same role.   But fulfilling different roles does not mean being docile and obedient and refusing to think for oneself.  For instance, I know of a person who leads the music ministry in a particular parish, who does not stop herself from thinking about her faith for herself, and therefore is willing to challenge the priest-in-charge of a particular liturgical event, if the kind of hymns he might prefer, do not reflect a theology that makes sense to her.  In the same manner, if we fail to use our own gifts to reflect for ourselves and offer our insights, we are actually harming the Church community and may be complicit in allowing it to go in directions that are not Jesus-like.  So, for instance, when we realise that today, just as it happened at the time of Hitler, there are Catholic bishops who support racism, casteism, fascism, religious fanaticism or even political stances or leaders that promote these ideas, we need to think for ourselves and make sure our voice  is heard too.  

To be mentally challenged is undoubtedly unfortunate,

      But to be mentally able, and yet to refuse to think

      Is far worse

To be unable to speak, is undoubtedly miserable,

But to remain silent, when one can and ought to speak up

Is far worse

To suffer from paralysis, is undoubtedly awful

But to refuse, out of apathy, to act

Is far worse

Reading 1, Acts 4:8-12

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, addressed them, 'Rulers of the people, and elders!

If you are questioning us today about an act of kindness to a cripple and asking us how he was healed, you must know, all of you, and the whole people of Israel, that it is by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, and God raised from the dead, by this name and by no other that this man stands before you cured.

This is the stone which you, the builders, rejected but which has become the cornerstone. Only in him is there salvation;  for of all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved.'

 

Reading 2, First John 3:1-2

You must see what great love the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called God’s children, which is what we are!  The reason why the world does not acknowledge us is that it did not acknowledge him.

My dear friends, we are already God's children, but what we shall be in the future has not yet been revealed. We are well aware that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is.

 

Gospel, John 10:11-18

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd 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 as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and runs away, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep; he runs away because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep.

And there are other sheep I have that are not of this fold, and I must lead these too. They too will listen to my voice, and there will be only one flock, one shepherd. The Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own free will, and as I have power to lay it down, so I have power to take it up again; and this is the command I have received from my Father.