shepherds – The Anchorite

Fourth Sunday of Easter (C): John 10:27-30

We are His people; the sheep of His flock. – Psalm 100:3

The Fourth Sunday of Easter is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday. This is because the Gospel reading for this Sunday is always drawn from John 10, where Jesus speaks at length about Himself as the Good (or True) Shepherd.

For us, the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is consoling and comforting. We imagine Him, gentle and humble of heart, smiling and tending to His sheep. We picture cute lambs romping in meadows, amid wildflowers of all kinds. A very peaceful, totally non-threatening image.

There is a great deal of truth in this image, of course. Jesus is all these things for us, and more. We forget one “minor” detail, however. What was the result of Jesus’ original sermon on how He is the Good Shepherd? What kind of reaction did He get? Were people all starry-eyed and smiling dreamily? No. Read on for a few verses past our Gospel reading for today. They wanted to kill Jesus. Continue reading “Who Is My Shepherd?”

Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)

2002 was an extraordinarily painful year for anyone involved in pastoral ministry in the Catholic Church in the United States. Early that year, the Boston Globe ran a series of articles describing a number of priests in that archdiocese who were accused of sexual abuse of children and teenagers – and describing how archdiocesan officials responded, or failed to respond, to the accusations. Even though stories of priests accused of sexual abuse of minors had been appearing here and there since the 1980’s, the Globe’s reports seemed like a bursting of a dam. Finally, it seemed, someone was listening to these stories of betrayal and violation and believing them. Soon, nearly every diocese was dealing with people who were accusing some of their priests of sexually abusing them when they were younger, and accusing bishops of knowing about this abuse but trying to conceal it or to simply move the accused priest to a different parish. It was difficult to know what hurt more: the realization that such abuse had actually happened (along with the tremendous pain it caused to the abused and their families), or the ways in which bishops tried to deny or cover up these situations. Continue reading “The Shepherds of Israel”