Good shepherd

Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life. They will never perish and no one will tear them out of my hand. My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one ”» John 10, 27-30.

Lord Jesus has repeatedly spoken this sentence from the now read Gospel of the Good Shepherd: “My sheep listen to my voice, I know them, and they follow me …” This is a model that has been true since the time Jesus founded our Church. It is a model that He himself considered generally functional. Nowhere is there any other style, even perhaps the opposite shepherd style, to speak of.

The sheep follow the shepherd. Not the other way around. Sheep should go to the shepherd. And if a shepherd goes after a sheep, just to get her out of her wrong way and to put her in the flock. The shepherd goes ahead and the sheep are to follow him. There is no other option in the Gospel. Shepherd leads and sheep are led. I therefore threaten the increasingly sounding words of some shepherds that they do not know, but accompany. So, they let the sheep go their way as they just attack them, and then the shepherd follows and accompanies them.

What then is the function of the shepherd? Why is he such a shepherd when he doesn’t know? He is totally useless, just as the fifth wheel on the car meets the entrusted herd. He’s late. He’s a slow shepherd! It is not to be a functionary, but to function. A shepherd who does not know but only accompanies is like a driver who drops off his seat and leaves a bus full of people to his fate. He’s just with them in that potentially crashing car. And it may add some word of encouragement and consolation to it, but even then they all go to destruction anyway.

A shepherd who does not fit is a shepherd free of charge. He just nods to the ideas of his sheep and so does not actually contribute to any service. The sheep soon realize that without such a “mechanical shepherd” they can do without a function similar to a wooden duck on a string, which the last of the herd pulls behind it like a toy. It is no wonder that there are not enough spiritual vocations. That there are few shepherds. Who wants to be such a puppet who has a great responsibility for God before men, but who has a weakened power to lead them before men?

Shepherd is the one the sheep are to follow. If they are stubborn and disobedient, they will lose their shepherd, and all that he wants to do for them will be of no use to them. Though such a lost sheep will relax from the inconvenient guidance, it will soon be captivated by the predators of this world, and it will deprive it not only of the comfort of a shepherd-free life but of life itself. Pastoral ism is a term derived from the word shepherd. Nowadays, when various crimes are invented as so-called. New pastoral models, I always remember the apt words of the Lord Jesus that sheep should follow the shepherd. They are to follow him not because he will prepare some sophisticated lures of various pastimes for them, but simply because he is a shepherd – appointed by Christ – the One who gave life for his sheep. The sacraments entrusted to the shepherd are what continues to give this life and life sacrifice.

The Lord Jesus then continues to say about sheep: “I will give them eternal life.” And that is the main reason for all his shepherding. He is not a shepherd to give something less than eternal life. It cannot be tempted by banality when it is the most important thing – life! A shepherd must be appreciated to have followers. Without doing his work as a shepherd leading the sheep, and without the sheep following him, there will be no more shepherds. They will not be needed. If he does not want to lead the shepherd, he only accompanies it, so it is useless. If the sheep does not want to be led, a shepherd is not necessary.

The value of this office lies in its function, not in its title. Therefore, a non-functioning shepherd is not a shepherd, and sheep without a shepherd are scattered and are not a herd. As we pray for new spiritual vocations, remember that the shepherds are functional and the sheep are obedient, otherwise God’s silence will respond to our prayers for the new shepherds.