Today’s readings: Jeremiah 23:1-6; Psalms 23:1-6; Ephesians 2:13-18; Mark 6:30-34
In 1599, one of the best-known love poems in English, written by the young Christopher Marlowe, was published posthumously. In The Passionate Shepherd to his Love, a wanting herder tries to win the love of his life with worldly assurances of joyousness and exhilaration. In reply to this poem, Walter Raleigh penned The Nymph’s reply to the Shepherd, wherein she rejects and ridicules the shepherd’s puerility in his understanding of love.
Years before, the 16th-century mystic John of the Cross also wrote about “a lone young shepherd living in pain, withdrawn from pleasure and contentment, his thoughts fixed on a shepherd-girl, his heart an open wound with love”. With psychological and spiritual finesse, he tells us that the shepherd “weeps, but not from the wound of love, even though the heart is pierced; he weeps in knowing he’s been forgotten”. Notwithstanding his pain, this lone young shepherd does not flirt with the shepherd-girl, neither does he lure her with devoid promises.
Instead, “he bows to brutal handling in foreign land, his heart an open wound with love”. Forgetful of self, he pities “the one who draws herself back” from his love. The poet tells us that “after a long time he climbed a tree, and spread his shining arms, and hung by them, he died, his heart an open wound with love”. The story ends abruptly, stopping short from telling us whether the shepherd-girl had even noticed the Beloved dying in self-forgetfulness pouring his heart out of love for her.
John of the Cross’s El pastorcico sings divine love lavished on us through the self-giving of the incarnate son of God. In him, the words of Psalm 23 are fulfilled. God our shepherd is at our side, his rod and staff, a sign of leadership and protection, give us courage especially when walking in the dark valley of evil. As a shepherd, God in Jesus Christ guides us in the right paths, refreshing us in our afflictions, not through empty words and promises but by shouldering upon himself our own hardships, trials, adversities, unto death, death on a cross.
This is the divine leadership paradigm to which we are invited to look at for inspiration in the shouldering of our responsibilities. To lead is to serve in self-forgetfulness, even to the point of being ready to lay down one’s life for the good of the other, be it in the family, at work, in the Church, in politics and in all spheres of our lives. It is only this kind of love which is worthy of attention and dedication.
I can never forget the tossing experience I had as a novice in Pisa way back in 1993 during the Somalia crisis. Two very young Italian parachutists were killed, victims of strife and war. As the civil authorities approached the crowded the streets, the cathedral square and the cathedral itself, an agitated and deeply hurt crowd yelled at their leaders: “send you children to war, not ours!” I couldn’t help not reflecting on the radical difference between the divine and worldly modes of leadership. Yet we persist in blindly following worldly leaders.
In the gospel, Jesus gives up rest; “his heart was moved with pity” seeing his people “like sheep without a shepherd”. In Jeremiah, God chastises the careless, opportunistic shepherds of the flock, “scattering them and driving them away”.
In the present circumstances of an endemic crisis of leadership in the world and the Church, let us contemplate the self-giving Shepherd to heal from all forms of societal selfishness, political opportunism and abusive clericalism. Let our hearts be moved with compassion and seek the common good.
Fr Charlò Camilleri, O.Carm.