Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

sheep

Fourth Sunday of Easter – Good Shepherd Sunday

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No wonder this is called Good Shepherd Sunday and the Church’s day of prayer for vocations.  Jesus’ identification as the Good Shepherd is read in all three cycles of the Sunday Gospels.  Jesus says: “I am the Good Shepherd.  I know my own and my own know me!”  One of the earliest paintings of Christ in the Roman catacombs represents him as carrying an injured sheep on his shoulders.  It was, and remains, an endearing and intimate image of a loving relationship – nurturing, life-giving, transforming, empowering.

I wonder aloud: why did Jesus choose SHEEP for his parable?  There are other animals native to the land where he spent his childhood: sand cats, camels, “man’s best friend”, or perhaps a goat or, heaven forbid: a pole cat.  Actually, there are 116 mammal species native to the Middle East.   What we do know is that he probably saw sheep most days of his life.  Jesus was teaching a lesson that would live LONG after He walked the face of this earth.  I can’t pretend or presume to read the mind of God.  But, Jesus, being God, knew that sheep would still be around today so that we 21st century people, living on the other side of the world, could identify with his example.

What is it about sheep that gives us some insight into our relationship with Jesus, the Good Shepherd?  I’ll describe a few.  Shepherds must anticipate the needs of their sheep for food, water, sleep, leadership and protection.  Sheep are commonly described as lacking initiative, dependent, copy cats but simple and playful.  They have insatiable appetites.  They seek sustenance, suckling from the moment they can stand upright. Sheep are skittish especially of loud noises and unpredictable in their reactions.   Maybe it’s their strong flocking instinct that most aptly applies to us who seek relationships in religious life?  Sheep are very social and need to see one another when grazing.  (Is that why we sit across from each other in chapel and at table?)

Sheep are agitated if separated from the flock (like humans who are forced to practice “social distancing”).  Sheep have excellent eyesight with their large, somewhat rectangular eyes, giving them a wide field of vision (like high sensates who take in every visual detail).   This feature, and a good sense of smell, alerts them to predators. Sheep are stubborn and unpredictable.  (Sound like anyone you know?) Head butting is both a natural and a learned behavior in sheep. (And, face it, some people are skilled in this behavior –  butting heads over trivial details.)

You see, we all act like sheep on occasion. We often ramble off from the flock to nibble at little bits of foreign pasture hanging over the fence. However, we have a Shepherd who understands us; one whose patience and love are infinite. He is always ready to go after us when we stray afar.  His voice is constantly reaching out to us in Lectio, retreats, sicknesses, crosses, this pandemic and other various ways. How many times have we already felt his loving grace calling and helping us back to the safety of His company? Once in a while we have even felt His shepherd’s crook around our neck, gently coaxing us back into the flock!

This Good Shepherd sermon preached by our Savior over two thousand years ago is still echoing and re-echoing around the world, calling on us, his faithful flock, to do all in our power to spread his Kingdom.  Do not shut your ears to this call of Christ today. Give him a helping hand by sharing the light of your faith, praying for and nurturing vocations.  And, ponder which sheep-like traits is Jesus coaxing to life in you?

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

First Reading:   Acts of the Apostles 4:8-12         Second Reading:  1 John 3:1-2
Gospel:   John 10:11-18
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Sheep in the Midst of Wolves

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In this Gospel passage, we rejoin Jesus during the first year of His public ministry.  Jesus directs the disciples to keep their focus on God.  He reminds them that those who can harm the body do not have ultimate power; God does. Persecution and suffering may not be avoidable or prevented but Jesus’ reassures us that God is always and forever at our call to care for us and protect us.  He is using here a rabbinic argument technique which compares a light matter to a heavy one.  His idea here is to overcome fear and encourage the disciples, and us, to trust God.

We see in the gospels, how on the one hand, Jesus grants the disciples remarkable powers to heal the sick, exorcise demons, cleanse people with leprosy, even raise from the dead.  But at the same time, Jesus he warns the disciples they are to undertake their mission in complete vulnerability and dependence on God with an awareness that they go as “sheep in the midst of wolves.”

From the moment we are born, we know fear – we squall at the change in our environment.  The startle reflex is tested in a baby’s first well-baby check-up.   Separation anxiety develops by 6 months and may raise its ugly head later in life feelings of abandonment.  Over time we may grow to fear even those who are closest to us.

Jesus recognizes that fear may cause failure on our part.  Jesus’ disciples, and we, courageously leave the security of home and family to follow a dream.  Jesus is starkly realistic about the threats we will face and at the same time he builds the case for why we should not let fear win out or hinder our ministry.

Jesus offers us a life-time coverage insurance policy and he share with us how it will work.  “Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I will put in a good word for you with my heavenly Father.  But woe to you who deny me before others; I will shake my had and tell my Father: I do not know this one.” (paraphrased)

The parting words of the Gospel selection leave us hanging with the feeling of the very fear Jesus seeks to dispel.  But with confidence we can pray the sentiments of the Responsorial Psalm (Ps 69): “I pray to you, O Lord, for the time of your favor. In your great kindness answer me with your constant help.  In your great mercy turn toward me.  See, and be glad; you who seek God, may your hearts be ever merry!”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

May you be safe from violent weather and blistering heat… stay hydrated… on fluid as well as the Word of God.

 

First Reading:  Jeremiah 20:10-13         Second Reading:  Romans 5:12-15
Gospel:   Matthew 10:26-33
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Do You Recognize the Shepherd’s Voice?

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Sunday, May 12th is designated Good Shepherd Sunday, a day of prayer for vocations.  We will certainly continue to pray for vocations to church ministries and for an increase in membership in religious communities.  In addition to that prayer, our community weekly intention is an intercessory prayer for MOTHERS – including all who mother others…  which in today’s society of broken families many daddies, too, serve in the role of both “mother” and “father” to their children.

The brief Gospel (just read) reveals Jesus as our unique “parent” – mother and father – our good shepherd.  Jesus is our means to salvation – the “sheep gate,” the gateway, the threshold to eternal life.  Jesus is the selfless, caring “shepherd” who provides protection and life itself.  How consoling and reassuring his words: “No one can take you out of my hand.  My Father, who has given you to me, is greater than all, and no one can take you out of my Father’s hand.”

A good shepherd’s life is not an easy one – the shepherd must be vigilant at all times, willing to keep the sheep close together (in community), lead them to green pastures and set a good pace sensitive to their endurance.  Jesus explains the difference between the concerned shepherd and the hireling.  The hireling is there only for the paycheck.  When trouble comes, he runs away and leaves the sheep to be devoured by the wolves.  The good shepherd, on the other hand, the shepherd who owns the sheep, has a vested interested in their welfare.  Therefore, the good shepherd is willing to pay any price to protect the sheep, even if it means that he has to give His very life for them.  Christ, the Chief Shepherd, knows our individual weaknesses and failings and watches over us with discerning love and sympathetic understanding.  With infinite concern He notes the doubts, fears, trials, conflicts, and defeats that disturb our peace, and He swiftly comes to our aid.

You’ve probably seen the painting titled “His Master’s Voice.”  It depicts a dog, looking with a cocked head, into an old gramophone.  It’s an apt symbol of what Jesus is saying to us or Benedict’s call to heed the voice of the Master.  Hear what Jesus says: “The sheep listen to his voice.  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”

The spiritual writer, Tony Campolo tells the story of a census taker who went to the home of a rather poor family in the mountains of West Virginia to gather information.  He asked the mother how many dependents she had.  She began, “Well, there is Rosie, and Billy, and Lewella, Susie, Harry, and Jeffrey.  There’s Johnny, and Harvey, and our dog, Willie.”  The census taker interrupted her: “No, ma’am, that’s not necessary.  I only need the humans.” “Ah,” she said.  “Well, there is Rosie, and Billy, and Lewella, Susie, Harry, and Jeffrey, Johnny, and Harvey, and….”  At this the exasperated man interrupted, “No, ma’am, you don’t seem to understand.  I don’t need their names I just need the numbers.”  To which the old woman replied, “But I don’t know their numbers.  I only know them by name.”

Sounds like Jesus in today’s Gospel – Jesus says the good shepherd knows his sheep by name.  Although there may be several flocks sharing the same sheepfold, when the shepherds walk up to the gate and call their sheep, each one instantly recognizes the voice of its own shepherd or shepherdess.  When they hear the familiar voice, they instinctively follow (they are led and they follow, they are not driven, that’s for goats).  They will ignore the voice of a shepherd other than their own.  We will hear many voices competing for our attention, but there is a special note to the voice of Jesus that demands our immediate and full attention.

To the untrained eye, the individual sheep in a flock may all look alike.  A good shepherd, however, can tell them apart — often because of their defects and peculiar traits.  A man who was tending a large flock explained it this way: “See that sheep over there? Notice how it toes in a little.  The one behind it has a squint; the next one has a patch of wool off its back; ahead is one with a distinguishing black mark, while the one closest to us has a small piece torn out of its ear.”  Jesus says: “I know my sheep and they know me.”  (Reminds me of how we can detect who is coming down the hall by the sound of her footsteps.)

A man in Australia was arrested and charged with stealing a sheep.  But he claimed emphatically that it was one of his own that had been missing for many days.  When the case went to court, the judge was puzzled, not knowing how to decide the matter.  At last, he asked that the sheep be brought into the courtroom.  Then he ordered the plaintiff to step outside and call the animal.  The sheep made no response except to raise its head and look frightened.  The judge then instructed the defendant to go to the courtyard and call the sheep.  When the accused man began to make his distinctive call, the sheep bounded toward the door.  It was obvious that he recognized the familiar voice of his master.  “His sheep knows him,” said the judge. “Case dismissed!”

There is no question that Jesus is our Good Shepherd.  The only question that remains at this point is this: Do you know the Shepherd? Do you recognize His voice?

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
First Reading:           Acts 13: 14, 43-52                      Second Reading: Revelation 7:9, 14b-17
Gospel: John1o: 27-30
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Fourth Sunday of Easter

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Have any of your ever raised sheep?  Or played with a lamb?  Maybe you’ve seen or touched a lamb at a demo farm for children?  Ok, so what we know about sheep we’ve learned from the media or in a science class.  I’ll take it for granted that you are a little familiar with the metaphors of sheep and shepherds but no so much as those who listened to Jesus talking about shepherds tending their sheep.   But, the image of Jesus as Good Shepherd has endured over the centuries as a primary image in our faith tradition.  One of the few Christian symbols dating from the first century is that of the Good Shepherd carrying on His shoulders a lamb or a sheep, with two other sheep at his side.

The power to describe the relationship between Jesus and his followers doesn’t necessarily require first-hand experience with raising or tending sheep.  In the earliest Christian art, the only depictions of Jesus are as the Good Shepherd.  And that image of Jesus persisted until about 500 AD.   By that time eighty-eight frescoes of the Good Shepherd depicted on the ceilings of the Roman catacombs because artists had run out of space of the walls of the churches of Rome.  The image speaks to us about the protection, intimacy, security, and care of shepherds for their sheep.

If we don’t know anything about the customs of shepherds and the unique relationship between the good shepherd and the sheep, then much of what the Psalms, namely Psalm 23, have to say will simply passes us by.

It’s an image of Jesus that’s popular with many people.  In some we see Jesus holding a lamb around his neck, over his shoulders, holding the two front legs of the sheep in one hand and the two rear legs in the other. These images appeal to us because of the tenderness of Jesus, his care and compassion for the lamb. Our minds naturally begin to wander and we realize it holds personal meaning for us. We are that lamb who is being carried by Jesus. It’s reassuring for us, in the dark days of our lives, that although we may feel empty and alone, we are never abandoned.  This is portrayed very beautifully in the poem Footprints which you may recall.

In each scene (of my life) I noticed footprints in the sand.

Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, others times there was one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life,

When I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord, “You promised me, Lord, that if I followed you, You would walk with me always.

But I Have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life

There has only been one set of footprints in the sand.

“Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”

The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints,

My child, is when I carried you.”

The image of the Good Shepherd is symbolized in a beautiful way by the Pallium which the pope and archbishops wear over their shoulders while celebrating Mass. The Pallium is made from lamb’s wool from sheep raised by the Trappist monks on the outskirts of Rome.  When mature, the sheep are taken to the Pope for a blessing and then cared for by Benedictine Nuns at St. Cecelia’s (where Benedict lives while he was going to school in Rome) until they are sheared on Holy Thursday.   The lamb’s wool is meant to represent the lost, sick or weak sheep in the desert which the shepherd finds and places on his shoulders and carries to the waters of life.

One of the amazing things about shepherds and their sheep is how the shepherd moves them from place to place – and how the sheep know and trust the voice of their shepherd.  A similar phenomenon is observed when expectant parents speak to their babe in utero, reciting nursery rhymes, reading stories aloud – even adult literature or the newspaper – when after birth the infant perks up at the sound of that voice, the cadence of the words being read, indicating, “I heard that before.”

Some people think sheep are rather dumb – but really they are not.  Perhaps, it is cattle ranchers who are responsible for spreading that ugly rumor, because sheep do not behave like cows.   Cows are herded from the rear by hooting cowhands with cracking whips, but that will not work with sheep.  If you come up behind a flock of sheep making loud noises and all they will do is run around behind you, because they prefer to be led.  You push cows, but you lead sheep, and they will not go anywhere that someone else does not go first namely their shepherd who goes ahead of them to show them that everything is all right.

At night the shepherd can walk right through a sleeping flock without disturbing a single one of them, while a stranger cannot step foot in the fold without causing pandemonium.  And when several shepherds and their sheep are at a watering hole and it is time to leave all the shepherds have to do is call and their flock separate themselves out – and follow their shepherd away.

This is what we need to do when confronted with a cacophony chorus of conflicting opinions … but we can only do this if, as Pope Francis reminds us, “it is essential in order to cope with complexity and change, that we have developed the ability to withdraw for quiet reflection.  Only then will we truly know the voice of our shepherd, heed His voice and follow wherever God calls.

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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