ALL WE LIKE SHEEP

A SERMON FOR GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY

During the darkest hours of the night, the Church’s thoughts revert to the worship of God.  In monasteries and abbeys and convents all over the world, monks and nuns, souls dedicated to God, rise from their beds in the middle of the night, and make their way to the chapel.  There, by the light of the flickering candles, they will sing the Office of Matins, their solemn chant rising through the night air, even as incense in the sight of God.  And each night the Office begins with the chanting of what is called the Invitatory, the invitation or call to prayer, the 94^thpsalm.  And as the world sleeps, these men and women of God sing through this psalm, until suddenly, in the middle of their solemn verses, they come to these words, and fall to their knees, calling upon all Christians everywhere to adore their God:  “O come, let us worship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker: For he is the Lord our God; and we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”

We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.  Reflect for a moment, this Good Shepherd Sunday, on the utter simplicity of these words, and the humility it takes to say them and mean them. We have no trouble of course, thinking about Our Blessed Lord as the Good Shepherd.  But did we ever really stop to consider what that makes us?  We are the sheep of his pasture.  Now if anyone were to tell you that you were a bunch of sheep, I’m sure that your first reaction would be to take offence. Who wants to be thought of as a sheep? For after all, what is a sheep? Nothing more than a stupid animal, mindlessly following the sheep in front of him, as the flock moves about, bleating, without a single thought in its collective head.  The sheep has none of the aggression and hunting skills of animals like the lion.  It has none of the cunning of the fox, none of the loyalty of the dog, none of the usefulness of a beast of burden like the horse, the ox, the mule.  The sheep is just a mindless creature, too stupid even to fight or complain when it’s being led to the slaughter.  No.  We don’t want to be thought of as a sheep.

But many of our enemies often do refer to us Catholics as ignorant sheep. According to them, that’s exactly what we are, sheep who mindlessly accept whatever Rome tells us.  Never thinking to question anything, we blindly follow our popes and bishops, doing whatever they tell us to do, believing whatever they tell us to believe, not a single original thought in our heads. Just obeying, always ready to fill the pews on Sundays to be fleeced by our shepherds.

Obviously, we must take some time here to make distinctions.  All comparisons fail in one or another aspect, and this is no exception.  So we must take the aspects of “sheepness”, and reflect on which of those aspects should apply to us and which we must reject.  For a start, don’t be the type of sheep that blindly follows anyshepherd, good or bad.  Our Lord tells us to beware the false shepherd.  You already took this stand when you rejected the changes of Vatican II.  You have turned your backs on the false shepherds that have tried to lead you astray, and so in this sense you have acted notlike mindless sheep, but have obeyed the advice given by St. Paul, that “if any manpreach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”  You have not practiced the kind of blind obedience that follows the false shepherd, as he leads you over the cliff of heresy, or delivers you to the wolves of false ecumenism, married clergy, the destruction of the Mass and the Sacraments.  See to it that you continue to remain faithful to this “same gospel that ye have received”.  Beware of anyfalse shepherds, anyman, pope, bishop, priest, conciliar ortraditional, who suggests anything to you which is not according to the faith we have been taught.  Never listen to suggestions merely because they appear to come from a pious man, nor because they seem to be prompted by a regard to the will of God.  We may be always sure that, if we are to be tempted, it will be by someone having a great appearance of virtue and religion.  

So what kind of sheep are we supposed to be then?  Obviously not by blindtrust in our shepherds today.  Today’s Gospel shows us how we should approach this.  It shifts the focus from us as the sheep to Our Lord as the Shepherd. The Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep.  So let us take a brief look at the role of the shepherd, so that we can find our own true identity ashis sheep.

The shepherd’s job, simply put, is to look after the sheep.  To care for them.  He loves them, feeds them, and guards them.   The shepherd is the man who will make sure they are fed, that they are led to waters where they can drink in safety, he will look after them when they are sick, search for them when they are lost, protect them when they are attacked by the ravening wolves.  All this is the job of the shepherd.  Some shepherds have their hearts only partly in their job.  These are the mercenaries Our Lord talks about, those who don’t mind feeding the sheep, watching over them, but at the first sign of trouble run away, saving their own skin and leaving the poor sheep to the wolves. But the good shepherd does more.  He is not content with just feeding and guarding his sheep.  He is ready to lay down his life for his sheep.  And of course, the pre-eminent Good Shepherd, Our Lord himself, did just that, giving his sheep life at the cost of his own.  He came into the world in search of men, who, like stray sheep, had wandered away from the sheepfold, and had become lost in the dark valley of sin. And he died for these, his people, the sheep of his pasture.

So we can see perhaps a little better now, that when Our Lord refers to himself as the Good Shepherd and to us as the sheep of his pasture, he is providing us with a striking and most beautiful analogy of the loving relationship between God and his people.  And in this analogy, the aspects that apply to us now become obvious.  Who among us has not been at one time or another one of those “stray sheep”, wandering around helplessly in sin.  Which of us does not need to be loved, fed, and protected? Are we not all fed by our Good Shepherd with sound doctrine, the great truths of the Faith, and above all the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist?  Are we not all protected by our Good Shepherd, who preserves our souls daily from the attacks of the devil by his loving grace?  Is there anyone amongst us who can honestly say that God does not love him, or her, and in fact that he didn’t love each of us enough to die on the Cross for us that we might have eternal life?  This is our Good Shepherd, and we are the sheep of his pasture.  We are the trusting, grateful sheep, who place all our confidence, all our faith, in this our Good Shepherd, who follow him wheresoever he leads us.  And we will stay faithful to him, not straying from our pasture, but as loyal sons and daughters of the Church, preserving our Faith, our Holy Mass, our Sacraments.  And in this pasture of the Good Shepherd, we place ourselves entirely in his hands, and because he is a “Good” Shepherd, we will have nothing to fear under his protection, and we will want for nothing.

“The Lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I shall want: he maketh me to lie down in green pastures.  He leadeth me beside the still waters, he restoreth my soul.  He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his Name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me.  Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.  And surely thy mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.  And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. ”  (Psalm 22)

The Latin word for shepherd is “pastor”.  So when we priests read the Gospel of Good Shepherd Sunday, we read it from a different point of view than you, the faithful.  Like you, we too are the sheep of his pasture.  But we are also conscious of the very heavy burden of responsibility we have as your pastors, your shepherds, the ones whom God has chosen, for better or worse, to lead his people and the sheep of his flock. None of us can say, like Christ, “I am the Good Shepherd.”  If we do compare ourselves ever with the Good Shepherd, it is only to realize our own shortcomings in performing our duties as shepherds of souls.  For this reason, I ask you today to please pray for your pastors, your shepherds.  Ask God to grant us the graces we need to feed you with the right doctrine, to provide you with the true Mass, valid and holy sacraments, to protect you from errors of the faith and from dangers to your morals, to heal you when you are sick with the Sacraments of Penance and Extreme Unction, to seek you out when you go astray.  Orate pro nobis!

But please, don’t even think of going astray!  There are wolves out there when you wander over the river and into the woods.  Many demons and other beasts of prey who go about as a roaring lion seeking whom they may devour.   As we say in Compline every night:  “Whom resist ye, steadfast in the faith.”  So stay safe in the true fold of this Faith, safe in God’s grace, remain as God’s people and the sheep of his pasture.  So that “when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him,” you may be gathered together by the Good Shepherd one last time.   For “then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:  and before him shall be gathered all nations:  and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth hissheep from the goats:  and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.  Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”