About those shepherds...

Sunday’s Gospel reading (Mt 9:36-10:8) gives us the very tender image of Jesus, filled with compassion, as He looks out on the crowds and sees them as “sheep without a shepherd.”

Christ, of course, is the Shepherd and desires that we all seek him as our own personal Shepherd.  But as part of His divine plan – in which He uses us fallen humans to share in His work – He has given us earthly shepherds, particularly in our Pastors, Priests and Bishops.

We’re fortunate to have many exceptional Priests where we are, including the Pastor of our church – Fr. Ed Meeks.

But truth be told, many of our spiritual leaders, including Priests and Bishops, are disappointing.  Everything from the outright evil of the seemingly endless abuse scandal to the confusion of Priests and Bishops who often seem more aligned with the spirit of the world than the Spirit of Christ. 

It’s one thing when a “regular person” disappoints us, it’s another when it’s someone in a position of authority.

St. Catherine of Siena was given no small insights into this predicament, particularly in her conversations with God as memorialized in her “Dialogues”:

“Their sins indeed should displease you, and you should hate them, and strive with love and holy prayer to re-clothe them, washing away their foulness with your tears -- that is to say, that you should offer them before Me with tears and great desire, that I may re-clothe them in My goodness, with the garment of charity. Know well that I wish to do them grace, if only they will dispose themselves to receive it, and you to pray for it; for it is not according to My will that they should administer to you the Sun being themselves in darkness, not that they should be stripped of the garment of virtue, foully living in dishonor; on the contrary I have given them to you, and appointed them to be earthly angels and suns, as I have said.  It not being My will that they should be in this state, you should pray for them, and not judge them, leaving their judgment to Me.  And I, moved by your prayers, will do them mercy if they will only receive it…”

Especially in our wicked and divisive age, Karen and I find it easy to judge our Priests and Bishops harshly.  More often than not, it stops there – with rancor.  God, through St. Catherine, is giving us a directive.  If it so happens that we’re given the “gift” of being able to rightly see the flaws in our spiritual leaders, then we have the responsibility to do our part of “holy prayer to re-clothe them.”

There’s a cynical, but not inaccurate line about politics, “we get the government we deserve.”

Well, the spiritual analog might be, “we get the Priests we pray for.”

We live a culture with far too many lost sheep and far too few good shepherds.  While we are grateful for every good shepherd we have (and the many outstanding young men saying “yes” to God’s call), there are many more wandering shepherds out there who are, perhaps, just one prayer away from the path to greatness.