Do you remember the opening lines from the theme song for “Ghostbusters”?
If there’s something strange in your neighborhood
Who you gonna call?
If there’s something weird
And it don’t look good
Who you gonna call?
The same set of questions may help to identify who shepherds you in your life. Have you ever asked yourself that question? Maybe you think yourself entirely too modern, too independent, to have a shepherd. Of course, even the Scriptures use the term as a metaphor. Only sheep really have shepherds. So perhaps the question should be: Hasn’t the good Lord given someone to watch over you?
Perhaps the question should be: Hasn’t the good Lord given someone to watch over you?
Christians have been taught to refer to their pastors as shepherds. Indeed, that is the English translation of the Latin word. But given the shortage of priests, the shepherding we offer is typically no longer deeply personal. The ratio of laity to clergy simply does not permit the person you call your pastor to be your personal confidant.
But can you pass through this life without having someone whom you can call? Someone who, if he or she does nothing else, will listen sympathetically? If living a human life is something we cannot do all by ourselves, then living a life of discipleship in Jesus Christ also depends on the life that we share with other disciples. And if we are always being influenced by others and, in our turn, influencing them, aren’t we ignoring a basic part of who we are if we do not ask: Who is my shepherd? Who leads me? Who supports me? Who gives me strength and hope?
Who is my shepherd? Who leads me? Who supports me? Who gives me strength and hope?
Sheep come with shepherds. In using the metaphor, Jesus suggests that much of who we are, who we are becoming, we owe to other human beings. So it is not an insignificant question to ask who shepherds us. If thinking of your shepherds fills you with gratitude—where would you be, who would you be without them?—then give thanks to the Lord because all blessings come from him.
Conversely, if your life seems more burden than blessing, maybe you should examine your sources of strength, who it is that you have chosen to show you the way. Where are you going under their influences?
Of course, one person’s shepherd is another’s sheep. Some people lead us, and we lead others. That is perhaps a troubling thought. Who looks to us to show the way? If we are responsible for one another, can we stand confidently before the great shepherd of souls, when he asks about the influence we have been for others?
Who you going to call? Who shepherds you? Who do you shepherd? Asking such questions is a way to know where you are going because none of us walks alone.
Too obvious a truth on which to spend an entire article. In charity I ask why throw another dagger at the Sacrament of Order. Knock it off the Seven? The priesthood that is bestowed in the Sacrament of Baptism is enough? That a Jesuit publication would add to the undoing, am I surprised?