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            The gospel of the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-16) points backward to the feast of Easter and forward to the feast of Pentecost, at which we commemorate the beginning of the church and of the church’s mission. 
            The metaphor of the good shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep (John 10:11), reminds us that Jesus’ death was an act of love for us, and that Jesus’ resurrection was the Father’s response to this sacrificial act of redeeming love: “this is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again” (v. 17). The resurrection is not a circumstance that follows the death of Jesus but the essential completion of his death.
            But the metaphor of the good shepherd also serves as a model for the leaders of the church, who are to carry on Jesus’ work and bring his message to the “other sheep that are not of this fold”  (v. 16), that is, the Gentile world.  Raymond Brown translates John 10:11: “I am the model  shepherd; the model shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”  Jesus distinguishes his leadership from that of the false leaders of Israel, the Pharisees, whom he characterizes as “thieves and robbers” (v. 8), who “do not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but climb in some other way” (v. 1).  In making this comparison Jesus is telling the future leaders of the Christian community how they are to conceive their office. 
            For it is under this same image of the shepherd that Jesus passes on his ministry of love to those who are to carry it on in his name.  In the scene by the lakeside the risen Lord commands Peter three times: “Feed my lambs” (John 21:15.16.17).  In the Christian community the characteristic of the shepherd, the pastor, must be his or her love for the flock. 
            Jesus illustrated this in his parable about the shepherd who, having lost one sheep, leaves the 99 other sheep in the open pasture and goes after the missing one until he has found it, and then, with great joy, lifts it onto his shoulders and returns home to call his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him (Luke 15:4-7).  The good shepherd is the one who goes to great trouble for the good of his flock. 
            In the Johannine parable Jesus tell us that the good shepherd must even risk life itself for the sake of the sheep (v. 15).  The crisis of leadership in the church may be due in part to the fact that we have talked too much about authority and not enough of leadership.  It is only the true leader, the man or woman who loves those committed to their charge to the point of risking their very life for them, who can enjoy real authority, and to whose voice the sheep will listen. 
            The metaphor of the good shepherd applies not only to church leaders but to all Christians: “there is no greater love than this, that someone should lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).  Rarely does this take the extreme form of martyrdom.  Most of the time it consists in a willingness to go to some trouble for the sake of others. 
            When the Cure of Ars ws asked the secret of his sanctity, he replies simply, “I am not afraid of trouble; this is all.”  But this is a very great deal, for the willingness to take trouble for the sake of others means a constant renunciation of one’s own desires and preferences.  Another spiritual writer has defined sanctity as “a passionate desire not to have one’s own way.”           

May 10, 2009

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