A "good" Shepherd

Homily (first part) at the ordination to the priesthood of Fr Nhlanhla Nxumalo SDB
Mater Dolorosa (Co-Cathedral, Mbabane)

Livi laba yinyama

I believe there are different “images” we use when we talk about “priests” and “priesthood”. Just last Sunday we celebrated “Father’s Day” and in different parishes priests prayed for the fathers in the community and the people prayed for their priests (I also got some greetings as the Father of the diocese).

In the readings you chose, you identify your call to the priesthood as a call to be a shepherd, being like Jesus “the Good Shepherd” which is an image treasured by the Church from the very beginning; particularly the one of the shepherd carrying the lost sheep on his shoulders.

Like my motto: “Livi laba yinyama”, the image of being a shepherd is one you can carry all through your life and discover it and understand it in new ways.

As I reflected on the Gospel passage I wondered why Jesus calls himself the “good” shepherd and not just “the shepherd”. Presenting himself just as the shepherd would have distinguish him from the hired man, the thief and the wolf…

I guess there are two reasons: one is that the word “good” here means “true”. He is the true shepherd. He is the one you are called to look at daily to learn from him how to shepherd his people. He is one you are called to look at because this is not about you; it is Jesus the Good Shepherd that people want to experience through your life. 

The other reason is that by being the good shepherd, Jesus fulfills the prophecy of Ezekiel 34 where God decides to shepherd his people, disappointed at the religious and political leaders who had been entrusted with that mission and failed dismally. Just a couple of lines help us understand what he was talking about:

“You have fed off their milk, worn their wool, and slaughtered the fatlings, but the sheep you have not pastured. You did not strengthen the weak nor heal the sick nor bind up the injured. You did not bring back the strayed nor seek the lost, but you lorded it over them harshly and brutally.”

(Ezekiel 34:3-4)

For those so-called "shepherds" their own security and their own interests were above the life, the dignity, the well-being of the sheep.

As I read these two lines it became clear to me that Jesus fulfills the prophecy. He strengthened the weak, healed the sick, brought back the strayed, sought the lost...

This is not something of the past. The risk is present even today among us.

Sadly, in Southern Africa, for over 25 years we have been writing “protocols” to make sure that the sheep are protected in the Church and beyond. Our eyes were opened to the reality of abuse from those with any kind of power in the Church (priests, sisters, lay people), abuse which is not just sexual but financial or in the way people might be treated.

Interesting that the expression "you lorded it over them" reappears in Matthew 20 when the mother of the Zebedee asked for special places in the Kingdom for her sons. He replies: 

"You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt." (Matthew 20:25)

He then adds: "But it shall not be so among you". Make sure it is not so with you, and you then witness the Good Shepherd.

As we read in the Gospel:

• The good shepherd is willing to die for the sheep. He is ready to protect them with his own life if necessary. It sounds nice! This is what you are saying today: "I would die for you" but sooner or later you might start feeling frustrated, disappointed, tired... It will be in the midst of that frustration and being tired that you will show that these are “your own” sheep, not as “possession” but as the ones you love with all your heart no matter what. 
  
  
• You are also called to know the sheep in the same way that the Father knows Jesus and Jesus knows the Father. Deeply. Lovingly. I think of you as a Salesian at the service of young people. Knowing them is as challenging as being ready to die for them. The reality of young people changes rapidly. By the time I was ordained priest – and I was young! – I realized that the youth of that time was different from mine.
  
  In this synodal journey you are called to open your eyes, your ears, your heart – not so much your mouth – to be able to know them.

Your faithfulness to love them and know them in the midst of your struggles will witness the Good Shepherd who never ever gives us on any of us.