| Christ, not "climbing", must be the core of a
priest On Sunday, 7 May [2006], in St. Peter's Basilica, Good
Shepherd Sunday and the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, the Holy Father
presided at Holy Mass for the ordination to the priesthood of 15 deacons
of the Diocese of Rome. The following is a translation of the Pope's
Homily, which was given in Italian.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, dear Ordinandi,
At this hour, dear friends, when you are being introduced as shepherds
in the service of the Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ, through the Sacrament
of Orders, it is the Lord himself who, in the Gospel, speaks of serving
God's flock.
The image of the shepherd comes from remote times. In the Orient of
antiquity, kings would designate themselves as the shepherds of their
peoples. Moses and David in the Old Testament, before being called to
become the leaders and pastors of the People of God, were in fact
shepherds with flocks.
In the anguish of the period of the Exile, confronted by the failure of
Israel's shepherds, that is, of its political and religious leaders,
Ezekiel sketched the image of God himself as the Shepherd of his people.
Through the prophet God says: "As a shepherd seeks out his flock... so
will I seek out my sheep; and I will rescue them from all places where
they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness" (Ez
34:12).
Jesus now proclaims that this time has come: he himself is the Good
Shepherd through whom God himself cares for his creature, man, gathering
human beings and leading them to the true pasture.
St. Peter, whom the Risen Lord charged to tend his sheep, to become a
shepherd with him and for him, described Jesus as the "archipoimen"
— "Chief Shepherd" (cf. I Pt 5:4), and by this he meant that it is only
possible to be a shepherd of the flock of Jesus Christ through him and in
very close communion with him.
The Sacrament of Ordination expresses this very point: through the
Sacrament the priest is totally inserted into Christ, so that by starting
from him and acting in his sight he may carry out in communion with him
the service of Jesus, the one Shepherd, in whom God, as man, wants to be
our Shepherd.
The Gospel we have heard this Sunday is only a part of Jesus' great
discourse on shepherds. In this passage, the Lord tells us three things
about the true shepherd: he gives his own life for his sheep; he knows
them and they know him; he is at the service of unity.
Through Jesus alone
Before reflecting on these three characteristics essential to
shepherds, it might be useful to recall briefly the previous part of the
discourse on shepherds in which Jesus, before designating himself as the
Shepherd, says, to our surprise: "I am the door" (Jn 10:7).
It is through him that one must enter the service of shepherd. Jesus
highlights very clearly this basic condition by saying: "he who... climbs
in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber" (Jn 10:1). This word
"climbs" — anabainei in Greek — conjures up the image of someone
climbing over a fence to get somewhere out of bounds to him.
"To climb" — here too we can also see the image of careerism, the
attempt to "get ahead", to gain a position through the Church: to make use
of and not to serve. It is the image of a man who wants to make himself
important, to become a person of note through the priesthood; the image of
someone who has as his aim his own exaltation and not the humble service
of Jesus Christ.
But the only legitimate ascent towards the shepherd's ministry is the
Cross. This is the true way to rise; this is the true door. It is not the
desire to become "someone" for oneself, but rather to exist for others,
for Christ, and thus through him and with him to be there for the people
he seeks, whom he wants to lead on the path of life.
One enters the priesthood through the Sacrament, and this means
precisely: through the gift of oneself to Christ, so that he can make use
of me; so that I may serve him and follow his call, even if it proves
contrary to my desire for self-fulfilment and esteem.
Entering by the door which is Christ means knowing and loving him more
and more, so that our will may be united with his will, our action become
one with his action.
Dear friends, let us pray ever anew for this intention, let us strive
precisely for this: in other words, for Christ to grow within us and for
our union with him to become ever deeper, so that through us it is Christ
himself who tends the flock.
Let us now take a closer look at the three fundamental affirmations of
Jesus on the good shepherd. The first one, which very forcefully pervades
the whole discourse on shepherds, says: the shepherd lays down his life
for the sheep. The mystery of the Cross is at the centre of Jesus' service
as a shepherd: it is the great service that he renders to all of us.
He gives himself and not only in a distant past. In the Holy Eucharist
he does so every day, he gives himself through our hands, he gives himself
to us. For this good reason the Holy Eucharist, in which the sacrifice of
Jesus on the Cross remains continually present, truly present among us, is
rightly at the centre of priestly life.
And with this as our starting point, we also learn what celebrating the
Eucharist properly means: it is an encounter with the Lord, who strips
himself of his divine glory for our sake, allows himself be humiliated to
the point of death on the Cross and thus gives himself to each one of us.
The daily Eucharist is very important for the priest. In it he exposes
himself ever anew to this mystery; ever anew he puts himself in God's
hands, experiencing at the same time the joy of knowing that He is
present, receives me, ever anew raises and supports me, gives me his hand,
himself. The Eucharist must become for us a school of life in which we
learn to give our lives.
Free for God
Life is not only given at the moment of death and not only in the
manner of martyrdom. We must give it day by day. Day after day it is
necessary to learn that I do not possess my life for myself. Day by day I
must learn to abandon myself; to keep myself available for whatever he,
the Lord, needs of me at a given moment, even if other things seem more
appealing and more important to me: it means giving life, not taking it.
It is in this very way that we experience freedom: freedom from
ourselves, the vastness of being. In this very way, by being useful, in
being a person whom the world needs, our life becomes important and
beautiful. Only those who give up their own life find it.
Secondly the Lord tells us: "I know my own [sheep] and my own [sheep]
know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father" (Jn 10:14-15).
Here, two apparently quite different relationships are interwoven in
this phrase: the relationship between Jesus and the Father and the
relationship between Jesus and the people entrusted to him. Yet both these
relationships go together, for in the end people belong to the Father and
are in search of the Creator, of God.
When they realize that someone is speaking only in his own name and
drawing from himself alone, they guess that he is too small and cannot be
what they are seeking; but wherever anther's voice re-echoes in a person,
the voice of the Creator, of the Father, the door opens to the
relationship for which the person is longing.
Consequently, this is how it must be in our case. First of all, in our
hearts we must live the relationship with Christ and, through him, with
the Father; only then can we truly understand people, only in the light of
God can the depths of man be understood. Then those who are listening to
us realize that we are not speaking of ourselves or of some thing, but of
the true Shepherd.
Obviously, Jesus' words also contain the entire practical pastoral
task, caring for men and women, going to seek them out, being open to
their needs and questions.
Obviously, practical, concrete knowledge of the people entrusted to me
is fundamental, and obviously, it is important to understand this way of
"knowing" others in the biblical sense: there is no true knowledge without
love, without an inner relationship and deep acceptance of the other.
The shepherd cannot be satisfied with knowing names and dates. His way
of knowing his sheep must always also be knowing with the heart.
However, it is only possible to do this properly if the Lord has opened
our hearts; if our knowing does not bind people to our own small, private
self, to our own small heart, but rather makes them aware of the Heart of
Jesus, the Heart of the Lord. It must be knowing with the Heart of Jesus,
oriented to him, a way of knowing that does not bind the person to me but
guides him or her to Jesus, thereby making one free and open. And in this
way we too will become close to men and women.
Let us always pray to the Lord anew that we may be granted this way of
knowing with the Heart of Jesus, of not binding to me but of binding to
the Heart of Jesus and thereby creating a true community.
'One flock'
Lastly, the Lord speaks to us of the service of unity that is entrusted
to the shepherd: "I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must
bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there will be one flock,
one shepherd" (Jn 10:16).
John repeated the same thing after the Sanhedrin had decided to kill
Jesus, when Caiaphas said that it would be better for the people that one
man die for them rather than the entire nation perish. John recognized
these words of Caiaphas as prophetic, adding: "Jesus should die for the
nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children
of God who are scattered abroad" (11:52).
The relationship between the Cross and unity is revealed: the Cross is
the price of unity. Above all, however, it is the universal horizon of
Jesus' action that emerges.
If, in his prophecy about the shepherd, Ezekiel was aiming to restore
unity among the dispersed tribes of Israel (cf. Ez 34:22-24), here it is a
question not only of the unification of a dispersed Israel but of the
unification of all the children of God, of humanity — of the Church of
Jews and of pagans.
Jesus' mission concerns all humanity. Therefore, the Church is given
responsibility for all humanity, so that it may recognize God, the God who
for all of us was made man in Jesus Christ, suffered, died and was raised.
The Church must never be satisfied with the ranks of those whom she has
reached at a certain point or say that others are fine as they are:
Muslims, Hindus and so forth. The Church can never retreat comfortably to
within the limits of her own environment. She is charged with universal
solicitude; she must be concerned with and for one and all.
We generally have to "translate" this great task in our respective
missions.
Obviously, a priest, a pastor of souls, must first and foremost be
concerned with those who believe and live with the Church, who seek in her
their way of life and on their part, like living stones, build the Church,
hence, also build and support the priest.
However, we must also — as the Lord says — go out ever anew "to the
highways and hedges" (Lk 14:23), to deliver God's invitation to his
banquet also to those who have so far heard nothing or have not been
stirred within.
This universal service has many forms. One of them is also the
commitment to the inner unity of the Church, so that over and above
differences and limitations she may be a sign of God's presence in the
world, which alone can create this unity.
Among the sculptures of her time, the ancient Church discovered the
figure of a shepherd carrying a sheep across his shoulders. Such images
may perhaps be part of the idyllic dream of rural life that fascinated the
society of that epoch.
For Christians, however, this figure with all its naturalness became
the image of the One who set out to seek his lost sheep: humanity; the
image of the One who follows us even into our deserts and confusion; the
image of the One who took upon his shoulders the lost sheep, which is
humanity, and carried it home.
It has become the image of the true Shepherd, Jesus Christ. Let us
entrust ourselves to him. We entrust you to him, dear brothers, especially
at this moment, so that he may lead you and carry you all the days of your
life; so that he may help you to become, through him and with him, good
shepherds of his flock. Amen!
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