Have you ever walked through a petting zoo? Mixing with the goats and lambs, petting them and feeding them leaves you smelling a little like the animals, doesn’t it. Pope Francis told the bishops of the Church that they need to smell like sheep and get mud on their clean shoes. His point was that bishops are to be like shepherds, mingling with the “smelly” sheep and searching out those who are lost. Why? Because this was the way Jesus was.
Our local archdiocesan center is called the “Pastoral Center.” Pastor means shepherd. This is the center where we find shepherds—those who mingle so much with the flock that they smell like sheep and have mud all over their shoes. We, of course, know that the Pastoral Center smells more like perfume than sheep, and the rooms are squeaky clean offices not sheep pens.
Today as we begin the second week of Advent, our readings speak of God as shepherd (Isaiah 40:1-11).
“Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.”
This is God’s self-portrait written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He is always bent over to our level with hands full of food held to our mouths. His heart is so tender that he picks up the little lambs and squeezes them to his bosom (his arms are so big they can hold thousands at a time) so they can feel his heart beating. There is hardly a better way to describe how much God loves each one of his sheep.
Jesus builds on this image (Matthew 18:12-14).
“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.”
Jesus’ heart is drawn to the hurting sheep caught up in the tangle of sin and despair. Often in the gospel stories we see Jesus going to the most hopeless person in a group and giving all his attention to them. The attention he gave the sinner, Zacchaeus, is a good example of this.
Today, coincidentally, is the feast day of Bishop St. Nicolas. He was a bishop who smelled like sheep and had mud all over his shoes. His was no easy life. He spent two years in a Roman prison during Diocletian’s persecution. Well-respected, he was invited to be part of the first ecumenical council at Nicaea. What he is best known for, however, is the way he moved among the children and the poor, serving them with gifts of love. There are many legendary stories of his good deeds among the needy of his flock. St. Nicolas was a true shepherd in imitation of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. And, it is fitting, that he is the children’s favorite saint, the saint of Christmas better known as Santa (Ni)claus.
We may chuckle when he read about Francis admonishing the bishops, but do we realize his words were for us as well? Do we have the heart of a shepherd? Are we seeking the lost, carrying the lambs, and reaching out to the lost and hurting souls of our age? Do we have the heart of Jesus? How much time do we spend in prayer each day praying for the conversion of sinners, and for our shepherds that they find ways to seek out the lost?
