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On Walking Upfront

Introduction

About us all

The second Sunday after Easter is always Doubting Thomas Sunday. The fourth Sunday is always Good Shepherd Sunday. We usually assume that the theme of shepherds and shepherding is only about popes and priests in pulpits and not also about the parents and other people in pews. Not true. Today, Good Shepherd Sunday, is about all of us. For the world is not neatly divided into two groups: either into shepherds (i.e. popes and priests) or into sheep (i.e. parents and other people). That’s not the way it really is. Some times we are all sheep who need to be led and fed. And some times we are all shepherds who need to lead and feed someone in need.

My gosh, is there anyone in the whole wide-world that is more shepherd than a father or a mother who have sheep they must lead into green pastures? Aren’t politicians shepherds who have sheep they must feed? Aren’t doctors and nurses, teachers and professors, aren’t they all shepherds who have sheep to lead? We are all in this together, and today, Good Shepherd Sunday, we are talking today about all of us.

A good shepherd knows

We find the classical passage on the Good Shepherd in the tenth chapter of John’s gospel. There Jesus highlights the qualities of a good shepherd. First of all, a good shepherd protects the sheep. (That, of course, strikes at the heart of our present scandal.) “I am the good shepherd, “ says Jesus. “The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy the sheep. I have come that they might have life and have it to the fullest” (Jn 10: 10). Good shepherds also lay down their lives for the sheep. Again Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. Unlike the hired hand who runs away when he sees the wolf coming, I lay down my life for my sheep”(Jn 10: 1-2).

Good shepherds also know their sheep. Once more Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. As the Father knows me and I know the Father, in the same way I know my sheep and my sheep know me” (Jn 10: 14-15). The Alleluia Verse before the reading of the gospel for Good shepherd Sunday, and which is repeated for all three cycles, singles out this last quality: "Alleluia! Alleluia! I am a good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me" (Jn 10:14-15). “Alleluia! Alleluia! I am a good parent, a good professor, a good politician, a good pastor, a good priest. We know our sheep, and our sheep know us.”

A good priest-shepherd knows…

“Alleluia! I am a good priest. I know my parishioners and they know me.” I know what preoccupies them, and I also know what does not preoccupy them. And knowing what they are not concerned about is almost as important as knowing what they are concerned about. It saves a lot of time and energy. As priest I know, for example, that most of my parishioners are not really concerned anymore about a celibate or married priesthood, and even about a male or female priesthood. I know, for example, that 71% percent of my parishioners now favor or at least are not violently opposed to married priests or even women priests.

I know also that most of my parishioners no longer agonize over sacramental confession or over artificial birth control, or even over divorce and remarriage, as we used to agonize in times past. I, good shepherd that I am, I know too that there is an ever increasing number of homosexuals out there who are accepting themselves though the church does not, and who are even peacefully settling down to life in the church with no intention of leaving it.

I’m a good shepherd; I know my parishioners. I know that most of them out there have either solved these matters for themselves, or simply don't see what the problem is, or just couldn't care less. I might not like those facts but they’re there, and good shepherds know they’re there and don’t pretend that they’re not there or that they don’t know that they are there.

On the other hand, I am a good shepherd who knows what does preoccupy my parishioners. I know that they are worried about the bottom line: about getting and holding a decent job, about affording health insurance, about educating their kids, about getting a new car they need. I know they’re worried about getting the monkey of addiction off their backs or the back of someone they love very much.

And if they are concerned about churchly things, it’s not about the lofty issues of celibacy or divorce or birth control. Rather, according to a recent survey, they are concerned about such down-to-earth things like having good liturgy presided over by good celebrants and preachers. Or like having a healthy religious education program for their kids. Or like something so pedestrian as having their sons and daughters treated with sensitivity and respect when they prepare for marriage, especially if it's going to be an ecumenical or interfaith marriage.

A good parent-shepherd knows…

We promised ourselves in the beginning that we would be talking about all of us. “Alleluia, I am a good shepherd. I know my sheep, and they know me.“ “Alleluia! I am a good parent. I know my kids, and they know me.” I know what preoccupies them, and I know also what does not preoccupy them. And again knowing what they are not concerned about is almost as important as knowing what they are concerned about. Saves you a lot of time worrying over matters about which they couldn’t care less, like the rings in their noses or their outrageous hairdo’s. I recall the remark of one mother in the midst of the Clinton scandal, “You know, our kids aren’t as concerned about other people’s sex lives as we are!”

If the nation learned anything from the school massacre in Columbine High in Littleton, Colorado, it’s that shepherds no longer know their sheep. Parents no longer know their kids. It’s a real family crisis today. Today there are vast secret areas in the lives of our children, which are considered “sacred” and ”off limits” to parents. It’s not just a problem of inner city kids bearing Afro-American or Latino names; it’s a problem even of suburban kids bearing lily-white names like Eric Harris or Dylan Klebold. How is it possible that those two young adults could possibly be plotting the total destruction of a high school, and could be concocting “weapons of mass destruction” in the basements of their respectable homes, and their parent not know it?

The gift of honesty

Alleluia! I am a good parent. I know my kids. I know whether they are taking drugs and whether they’re having sex. I know what spiritual problems are afflicting them: peer pressure, parent pressure, sexual identity, etc., etc. Good shepherd that I am, I know all this because I have prime time for my kids. And if I don’t have prime time for them, I make prime time, because anything less is too expensive. In prime time I really get to know my kids. If I know whether or not they’re on drugs, or are having sex, it’s not because I have snooped but because in prime-time I have offered them the invitation and the freedom to be honest with me, and they have repaid my prime-time by giving me their honesty. Oh what a gift! That honesty bestows a wonderful blessing upon the both of us. It does away with the pretense that keeps dividing us into two parallel lines that really never meet, and it enables the two of us to come together, kiss, and become one.

That honesty can bestow the same wonderful blessing upon the church, God’s family. It can do away with the pretense that’s alive and well in the church … the pretense about divorce (we don’t permit it); the pretense about birth control (we don’t practice it); the pretense about gays (they’re not there). Honesty can do away with that pretense which keeps the church always divided into two parallel lines, hierarchy and laity, who really never meet. And it can enable the two of us to come together, kiss, and become one. And that would really make us be what we have been claiming to be over and over again since Vatican II: “God’s one people.”

Upfront shepherding"

The tenth chapter of St. John carries the classical passage on the Good Shepherd. With the easy imagery of sheep and shepherds it highlights for us the qualities of a good shepherd. But in the midst of it all, there is a little phrase or expression which is quite “harmless” at first, and which you could easily miss unless alerted to it. I missed it for years and then one day it jumped out at me. For me it seems to say everything I would like to say on Good Shepherd Sunday. For me it seems to say everything in a very simple but profound way. For me it seems to say everything there is to be said on this Sunday. That “harmless” expression or phrase is this: “The good shepherd walks upfront -- and the sheep follow him” (Jn 19:4).”

Upfront shepherding does not drive the herd from behind, but rather draws the flock from upfront: “And the sheep follow him.” Upfront shepherding does not drive herd by commanding and threatening, but draws the flock by wordlessly doing something, or better yet, by being something so wonderful and attractive up there in front that everyone back there wants to follow.

John XXIII walking up front

For a few short wonderful and refreshing years, we had a shining example of up-front shepherding in good Pope John XXII. He now has a magnificent bronze statue of himself in a very prominent position in our remodeled cathedral. He was elected pope in October of 1958 and was crowned (!) as head of the universal church in November. On the day of his “coronation,” against all tradition, he rose to deliver the homily. Different people, he said, have different ideas about what the new pope should be. Some think he should be a statesman, a diplomat, a scholar, etc. "The new pope," he said, "has in mind John's example of the Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who came not to be served but to serve." Then he removed his Tiara (that ostentatious toy of power) and he dismounted the sedia gestatoria (that laughable portable throne of popes) and he went off shepherding.

On Christmas Day, 1958, he sped out of elaborate Vatican gates to visit inmates in a Roman prison. Oh how that unexpected gesture turned the church on! John walked “up front,” and the church wanted to follow him. On his first Holy Thursday as pope in March of 1959, John restored an ancient custom that had fallen into disuse – (and the disuse was as symbolic as the custom itself): he bent down and washed the feet of 13 young priests. Oh how that unexpected gesture turned the church on! John walked “up front,” and the church wanted to follow him. Then on 11^th of October, 1962, he opened the Second Vatican Council to which he had invited everyone: Orthodox, Protestants, Jews and even non-believers. Oh how that unexpected universal all-embracing invitation turned the church on! John walked up front and the church wanted to follow. The new Pope, sitting on the exalted chair of St. Peter’s, even made an uptight universal church laugh, which it hadn’t done for centuries. The roly-poly Pope informed us that his election had not been a beauty contest. And when asked, “How many work in the Vatican?,” he replied, “About half.” Oh how that unexpected humanity and humor of his turned the church on! John walked up front and the church wanted to follow.

Conclusion

Shepherding for our crisis

Upfront shepherding: that’s the kind of leadership which doesn’t drive but draws. Upfront shepherding: that’s the kind of leadership which trusts the sheep walking behind, and listens to what they are saying. Upfront shepherding: that’s the kind of leadership which makes the two parallel lines (parents and kids, hierarchy and laity) finally meet, kiss, and become one. Upfront shepherding: that’s the kind of leadership which is what it says: upfront, honest, and transparent … the kind of leadership the present moment calls for, in order to turn our crisis into opportunity.