Sheepdogs

4 pm Saturday Homily

A shepherd and his dog were herding a flock of sheep in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW roared out of the dust cloud. The driver, a young man in an Armani suit with Gucci shoes, Ray-Ban sunglasses and a Ferrigamo tie, leaned out the window and asked the shepherd: "If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?" 

The shepherd looked at the cocky young man and calmly answered "sure". 

The young man parked his car, whipped out his laptop; connected it to a mobile phone; surfed to an online GPS satellite navigation system; scanned the area; opened up a database; used his Excel spreadsheets with complicated formulas; and finally printed out a long report on his high-tech miniaturized printer. He turned to the shepherd and said, “You have here exactly 1,586 sheep.”

The shepherd said, “That is correct and, as agreed, you can take one of my sheep.” He watched the young man make his selection and put the animal into his car.

The shepherd then said to the young man, “If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me my property back?”

“Okay, why not,” the young man answered. 

“You’re a consultant,” said the shepherd.

“That’s correct! How did you guess that?” asked the young man.

"Easy,” answered the shepherd. “You turn up here, though nobody invited you; you want to be paid for an answer to a question I never asked; and you gave me information I already knew. Besides, you don’t know anything about sheep and shepherds.”

The young man angrily asked: “How did you come to that conclusion?”

The shepherd answered: “Because, you took my dog.”

Apparently, the young man couldn’t tell the difference between a sheep and a sheepdog. Clearly, he in no way was qualified to shepherd a flock. A shepherd he was not.

This raises important questions. Can each of us be called a shepherd faithfully guarding that which is important such as our families, our Church, our moral values, or our country with its precious but endangered democracy? Can we guard against the powers of evil with their temptations that deceive and seduce us?

From our first reading we heard: Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the LORD. You have scattered my sheep and driven them away. You have not cared for them. These are your evil deeds, says the LORD.

Every one of us can name bad shepherds. Our Bible gives us guidance as to how to identify them.

From Philippians: Bad shepherds feed themselves on money and power. Good shepherds must overcome these bad shepherds by showing genuine concern for the welfare of people, and certainly those entrusted to the care of the church. 

From Isaiah: Bad shepherds “lack understanding; they all turn to their own way; they seek their own gain.”  

From Ezekiel: “They do not care for the flock.”  Instead, “they rule them harshly and brutally.” 

From 1 Peter: They “pursue dishonest gain,” and they “lord it over those entrusted to them.” 

From Jude: Bad shepherds “feed only themselves” 

From the fifth Psalm: Bad shepherds speak falsehoods; the Lord despises the deceitful – the liars.

For those of you who know of Dr. Jordan Peterson, who has had many conversations and interviews with Bishop Robert Barron, Peterson wrote in his 2018 book “12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos:” “Above all, don’t lie. Don’t lie about anything ever.  Lying leads to Hell.  It was the great and small lies of the Nazi and Communist states that produced the deaths of millions of people.” When we are faced with evil, we cannot remain silent.  Silence is a lie, and tyranny feeds on lies.” Lies corrupt the world.  Worse, that is their intent.

We have bad shepherds in families, in government, and in churches of every denomination. They lead us into temptation. They do not deliver us from evil. They are the deliverymen.

On the other hand, a good shepherd is described in our second reading from Ephesians.  A good shepherd promotes peace and breaks down dividing walls of enmity – hostility and hate.  That shepherd strives for unity creating one instead of division with two or more arguing and fighting at swords’ points. That shepherd comes to preach peace to us from far and near and can use Jesus’s death on the cross to help us understand why we should sacrifice for a greater good.

Our Gospel reading from Mark suggests some of those greater goods: When Jesus disembarked from the boat and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. A good shepherd is merciful and is moved with pity to help those in need and who are suffering. A good shepherd is truthful and teaches right from wrong, the importance of forgiving those who have trespassed against us, and never betraying the trust of those who love us – especially betraying God by refusing to love others as God loves us. Those are greater goods.

Speaking of good shepherds, one day in Church a priest told the children in a religious education class that sheep weren't smart and needed lots of guidance. He told them a shepherd's job was to stay close to the sheep; protect them from wild animals; and keep them from wandering off and doing dumb things that would get them hurt or killed.

He pointed to the little children in the room and said that they were the sheep and needed lots of guidance.

Then the priest put his hands out to the side, palms up in a dramatic gesture, and with raised eyebrows said to the children, "If you are the sheep then who is the shepherd?" He was obviously referring to himself.

A silence of a few seconds followed. Then a little boy said, "Jesus, Jesus is the shepherd."

The young priest, obviously caught by surprise, said to the boy, "Well, then, who am I?"

The little boy frowned thoughtfully, then said with a shrug, "I guess you must be a sheep dog."

Frankly, there is nothing wrong with that. We are all supposed to be like sheep dogs – perhaps like Australian sheepdogs, border collies, Welsh corgis, and Anatolian shepherds. We are to work on behalf of our good shepherd Jesus Christ by herding and guiding other people onto right paths and through dark valleys. Like Jesus, and expressed in today’s 23rd psalm, we are to be at their sides giving them courage and refreshing their souls. We are not to lead anyone into temptation, and we are to deliver everyone from evil.

The critical question is: Are we up to those tasks? We sheep dogs had better be.

Deacon David Pierce