The cross Pope Francis wears around his neck bears the image of the Good Shepherd, bearing the lost sheep upon his shoulders. Above is the Holy Spirit radiating down on this ministry of mercy and compassion. Pope Francis sees himself as a shepherd of his flock, his diocesan flock in Rome and the worldwide flock of the Catholic Church. Time ago Our Holy Father went to a parish on the outskirts of Rome and he visited a live nativity scene, which had various animals including sheep and lambs. A woman who was part of the nativity scene placed a lamb across Pope Francis’s shoulders. The photograph of the Pope with a lamb draped across his shoulders went around the world in seconds. It was an unexpected moment which expressed an important truth about how the Pope sees his ministry in the church. The gospels suggest that Jesus identified himself with the shepherds of his time because in saw in their work an image of his own ministry. Jesus observed how shepherds related to their flock and he recognized something of himself in them. In the gospel reading this morning, he describes a scene that would have been familiar to his contemporaries in Galilee. Sheep are gathered in a sheepfold for protection. The shepherd enters the sheepfold through the gate. He then calls his sheep by name and he leads them out of the sheepfold to pasture. He goes ahead of them and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice and they trust him. This is a powerful image of how Jesus wishes to relate to us. He calls to us as someone who knows us and cares about us. He calls us to lead us a place of pasture, to a place where our deepest hungers and thirsts are satisfied. In the words of the gospel reading, he leads us to a place where we may life and have it to the full. He goes ahead of us towards this place and he calls us to follow him. He doesn’t get behind us and drive us in this direction. Leading and driving are two very different activities. Leading is much more respectful of our freedom, of our humanity. Yes, he desperately wants us to have life and to have it to the full. Yet, he calls out to us to follow him there; he calls us as someone who knows and loves us and desires what is best for us. He wants us to recognize him not as a stranger but as leader who knows us through and through, who can see more clearly and more deeply than we can. He calls and he waits for us to respond to his call. Today is vocation Sunday. It is a day when we remind ourselves that we are called. From our baptism we are all called to follow Jesus as his disciples, to take our lead from him. Within that general call which we all share, we each have a particular call that is in keeping with our own unique gifts and limitations, our own distinctive set of experiences. We live out the call to be the Lord’s disciple in a way that is unique to each one of us. We each have to ask ourselves, “What does it mean for me to live out my calling to be the Lord’s disciple?” In his message for Vocations Sunday, Pope Francis says that our response to the Lord’s personal call to us ‘always requires an exodus from oneself in order to centre one’s life on Christ and on his gospel’. It is, he says, ‘an exodus that leads us on a journey of adoration of the Lord and of service to him in our brothers and sisters’. Addressing us all he says, ‘I invite you to listen to and to follow Jesus, and to allow yourselves to be transformed interiorly by his words, which are spirit and life… It will help you to participate in a communal journey that is able to release the best energies in you and around you’. I like the Pope’s reference to a communal journey. In that image Jesus paints in the gospel reading, the shepherd does not lead the sheep to pasture one at a time, but together as a flock. The Lord’s call to each of us is very personal and our response is very personal but it is never a private affair. His call sets us out on a communal journey, a journey with others who are trying to respond to his call. We are very dependent on each other on this communal journey. The more generously any one of us responds to the Lord’s personal call to us, the more everyone else is supported in their efforts to respond to the Lord’s call to them • AE
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Pastor que con tus silbos amorosos
me despertaste del profundo sueño,
Tú que hiciste cayado de ese leño,
en que tiendes los brazos poderosos,
vuelve los ojos a mi fe piadosos,
pues te confieso por mi amor y dueño,
y la palabra de seguirte empeño,
tus dulces silbos y tus pies hermosos.
Oye, pastor, pues por amores mueres,
no te espante el rigor de mis pecados,
pues tan amigo de rendidos eres.
Espera, pues, y escucha mis cuidados,
pero ¿cómo te digo que me esperes,
si estás para esperar los pies clavados? •
Lope de Vega (1562-1635)
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La expresión y el lenguaje tiene más importancia de lo que puede parecer a primera vista. Los apóstoles y ya los primeros cristianos expresaban su fe en la persona de Jesús llamándole “Señor”. ¿Qué querían decir con esta expresión? La palabra castellana “señor” tiene detrás el "basileus", el "kyrios" griego, y el "dominus" latino y significan poder, grandeza, señorío. Algo que en el mundo oriental enlazaba con los dioses, con la divinidad ¿Qué sentido tiene esta palabra aplicada a Jesús? ¿Cómo es el señorío de Jesús? Jesús es señor pero no como los de este mundo. Jesús es el Salvador, el único y verdadero salvador para todo hombre. Y salva no con el poder humano, sino con el servicio al hermano, con el perdón y la cruz. Salva con el poder de Dios que no se apoya en dinero, ni en el mando, ni en astucia, ni en la violencia o la prudencia humana. Es una salvación que viene por la debilidad, por la pobreza, por lo que dijo e hizo. El señorío de Jesús es distinto, pues, al del rey o del amo. El lenguaje no debe confundirnos; sería una trampa peligrosa. Este peligro de confundir el señorío de Jesús siempre ha acecha a los discípulos de Jesús y a su Iglesia. Tal vez la palabra “pastor” exprese bien el señorío de Jesús. Jesús mismo usó esta expresión, apropiada a un país agrícola y pastoril. El buen pastor está cerca de las ovejas, las conoce, las cuida, va delante de ellas. Vive entre ellas y por ellas. A las cojas y enfermas no las abandona ni remata, sino que las presta un cuidado especial. Busca a la que se ha perdido y sobre todo está dispuesto a dar la vida por todas. El buen pastor no se entiende en términos de explotación o dominio, sino de vida, pastos y salvación. Al buen pastor se contrapone el mercenario y el ladrón, que saltan por la ventana y no entran por la puerta. El buen pastor es el que mantiene unido al rebaño, el que hace comunidad. Si Jesús es pastor es porque hay ovejas, hay comunidad. El pastor sólo se entiende en función del rebaño, sin éste no hay ni se necesita pastor. Así es como en torno a Jesús nace la comunidad, la Iglesia, como algo lógico y espontáneo. Sin asomo de autoritarismo ni de paternalismo. La realidad y la salvación de Jesús que hoy la Iglesia nos invita a contemplar en la Liturgia de la Palabra se expresan en estos hermosísimos términos de Señor y Pastor, ¡qué suerte tenemos al haber sido convidados al redil! • AE
Lucas Chranac El Viejo, El Buen Pastor (1538),
óleo sobre tela.
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