Special
The Good Shepherd Guest Columnist Father Michael Bergeron
(This is part one in a series of articles about the relationship of a shepherd with his flock.) A minister once phoned in his Sunday morning sermon title to the religion editor of the local newspaper. He said, “The topic for my message is, `The Lord is My Shepherd.’” The editor asked, “Is that all?” Trying to make a spiritual point, the pastor replied, “That’s enough!” On Saturday, when the paper was delivered to the pastor’s door, he immediately opened it to the section containing the church notices. His topic for the sermon read: “The Lord is My Shepherd – That’s Enough!” And it is enough. Just knowing that one thing is medicine for our souls. Sheep are mentioned in the Bible more than 500 times, more than any other animal. The prominence of sheep in the Bible grows out of two realities. Sheep were important to the nomads and agricultural life of the Hebrews. Secondly, sheep are used throughout the Bible to symbolically refer to God’s people. Shepherds play a significant part in the story of Jesus. They not only
remind us that Jesus is descended from David, who himself was a shepherd from Bethlehem, they also symbolize the loving care that was to be central to Jesus’ ministry. Jesus would later describe himself as the Good Shepherd, knowing that anyone in Palestine would understand that the relationship between a good shepherd and his sheep was one of trust and care as immortalized in the 23rd Psalm, which begins, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” I’ll break that one open for you later. The Sheep First, let’s talk about sheep. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t particularly care for being compared to a sheep. If the Lord is our Shepherd, we must be sheep. And that is not a very appealing image. Sheep are not the brightest of animals. They are constantly getting themselves in trouble and once in trouble they often can’t get themselves out. Sheep and goats were raised for meat, milk and wool. The Scriptures are full of pastoral people such as the Israelites – sheep provided both food and clothing. Yet, sheep are highmaintenance creatures. They must be protected from bad weather and predatory animals. They must be led to water to drink. They learn the voice of their own shepherd, and refuse to respond to anyone else’s commands. When they are sick or injured, they must be carried from place to place by the shepherd. When Jesus likens the crowds to sheep without a shepherd,
26 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • September 2021
he is speaking to their needing help in order to survive. The main part of Judea is a high plateau that stretches from Bethel to Hebron, a distance of 35 miles. But it’s only 14 to 17 feet across. The ground around these highlands is rough and stony, completely unsuitable for farming but somewhat useful as pasture land. There is so little grass, that the animals tend to wander and have to be watched. That is why no flock ever grazes without a shepherd, so the shepherd is always on duty – and believe me, it’s a hard life. On the other side of this plateau, the ground drops suddenly to a desert below, so of course, wandering sheep can get lost. On top of all that, the shepherd has to guard his flock against wild animals such as wolves, and against thieves who would steal his sheep. We’re told that sheep always travel in a straight line, which creates problems when a shepherd calls the sheep farther up a hillside: The animals will not walk around hazardous obstacles, but will walk right off the path, getting hurt in the process. This problem is compounded by the fact that sheep will blindly, habitually, stupidly follow one another . . . sometimes to their deaths. In the Highlands, when sheep wander off into the rocks and get into places that they can’t get out of, shepherds don’t go after them immediately. The grass on these mountains is very sweet and the sheep like it, and they will jump down 10 or 12 feet from the
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