Fourth Sunday of Easter, Cycle A. Today’s readings: Acts 2:14a, 36-41; 1 Peter 2:20b-25; John 10:1-10
The figure of the Good Shepherd has been a Christian iconography staple since the earliest times. In these images, a youthful Christ stands tall, carrying a sheep on his shoulders, lambs grazing peacefully at his feet. These representations have accompanied the Church’s history already from the catacombs, and serve as a reminder of the God who became man to seek and save the lost sheep.
Yet this luminous image of compassionate love – the shepherd who gladly lays down his life for his flock – contrasts with the murky shadows cast by the misbehaviour of many shepherds over the centuries. It is a spiritual darkness that often seems hydra-like in its complexity and invincibility. Hardly has the dust settled on an abuse scandal than another crops up: sexual, spiritual or financial.
Well-meaning apologists occasionally try to rationalise the evil present in the Church through the analogy of artistic techniques, describing how a dark background makes the lighter, colourful parts of a painting more resplendent and glorious. Yet as valid as this analogy may be, it is woefully inadequate at addressing the particular depravity of evil perpetrated by religious leaders. True darkness leaves real victims in its wake: broken lives, traumatised hearts, wounded souls.
The four evangelists depict Christ in frequent confrontations with the hypocritical religious leaders of his time who tried to hide their predatory behaviour behind a veneer of ostentatious piety. In today’s gospel, he speaks about shepherds who had harmed the flock. His disdain and anger at the damage they had inflicted upon his beloved people is evident in the words he uses to describe them: “thieves and robbers”. These, he reminds his listeners, sneak into the sheepfold only to steal, slaughter and destroy.
Nevertheless, it is easy to shine a spotlight on the most egregious crimes of churchmen and women while sweeping under the metaphorical rug those more mundane and mediocre sins afflicting us all. In a meditation on October 16, 2015, Pope Francis described this as “the seduction of chiaroscuro”: not the scandals prominently splashed across newspapers and news bulletins perhaps, but a flirting with darkness nonetheless. The duplicity characterising the life of many within the Church: a way of living, acting and speaking that is unclear, ambiguous, seemingly unthreatening, but in reality as dangerous as a serpent ready to strike.
Yet today, Christ not only identifies the problem; he also offers us the solution. Or rather, he is the solution. In his same discourse about robber shepherds wreaking havoc on the flock, he describes himself as the gate. This curious metaphor probably refers to the practice at the time whereby shepherds would spend the night sleeping in the doorway of the sheepfold – effectively becoming the gate themselves – so that neither could the sheep leave nor predators enter.
A creative interpretation for this image of Jesus as the gate envisions him as the template to whom all real shepherds must be conformed if they wish to authentically serve the Lord’s flock rather than harm it. The Church’s shepherds must strive to be assimilated to Christ in his self-sacrificial generosity, his purity and compassion, his integrity and love for the truth, his courage. They must also diligently leave out of the sheepfold any traits contrary to the spirit of Christ.
The Church’s shepherds must strive to be assimilated to Christ in his self-sacrificial generosity, his purity and compassion, his integrity and love for the truth, his courage
On this Vocations Sunday, I wholeheartedly renew the prayer I was taught by a holy priest before I entered the Seminary in 1997: “O bone Iesu, fac ut sacerdos fiam secundum Cor tuum.” (O good Jesus, grant that I may become a priest after your own heart).
bgatt@maltachurchtribunals.org