A very Merry Christmas to you!
As we celebrate Christ’s two-thousand-and-twenty-fifth birthday this year, let’s give glory to God and pray for peace on earth.
Shepherds
You probably have a least one shepherd in your Nativity set. Shepherds had a starring role in the first coming of Jesus.
In those days shepherds were lower class. Their job kept them isolated, some were thieves. Because they lived outside, they were probably unkempt and dirty. And working with animals, they were considered ritually unclean and so couldn’t enter the Temple. No doubt they smelled. Remember how Pope Francis told priests they should be shepherds with the smell of the sheep?
Yet, who were the first privileged to hear the Good News that the Messiah was born? Not the Pharisees smelling of holy incense, not Herod or Caesar Augustus doused with expensive cologne, but lowly, stinky shepherds. Jesus also favored poor, ostracized people in his ministry:
He touched a leper, a social pariah, and healed him,
– brought a widow’s dead son back to life,
– saved an adulterous woman from being stoned to death,
– rescued a crooked tax collector named Zacchaeus,
– and assured a criminal dying on a cross next to him that he would be in Paradise.
We might imitate God and reach out to outcasts. How? Deliver meals to the homeless. Help support an immigrant family. Invite the relative or neighbor no one likes to your party.
Shepherds as Evangelizers
Angels are so majestic and radiant that if I saw one, I’d probably faint. The shepherds were terrified when an angel appeared to them and told them how to find the Savior. Then a slew of other angels appeared, praising God. The shepherds raced to the Holy Family and so were also the first outsiders to behold the Messiah. Afterwards they told everyone about him. In other words, they were the first evangelizers, bearers of the Good News. The Gospel says all who heard of it were amazed.
The incarnation IS amazing. But we get used to it. God became man. Ho-hum. But wait. Almighty God, the Supreme Being and creator of the universe, took on flesh and blood, walked our earth, and breathed our air, came as a baby. WOW. This Christmas let’s recapture awe at this greatest miracle: God’s extreme act of love.
Somehow you heard the Good News—probably not from an angel. You are sent to be an evangelizer. That’s every Christian’s job description. Who can you pass on the Good News to? A child? A neighbor? A relative? Students in a religion class or people in an OCIA program?
Jesus, the Good Shepherd
The prophet Isaiah described God as a shepherd. (Isaiah 40:11) In his book in the Bible we read:
He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.
Jesus’s ancestors like Jacob and Joseph were shepherds. Moses wasn’t an ancestor, but he too was a shepherd and experienced God in a burning bush while on the job. King David was a shepherd as a lad. While tending his father’s sheep in Bethlehem, he killed lions and bears that snatched a lamb from the flock. No wonder David wasn’t afraid of Goliath. Jesus inherited those shepherd genes. He called himself the Good Shepherd. And he was. He rescued us from Satan’s grasp. He gave his life for us dumb sheep!
A Parable about a Shepherd
Jesus told a parable about a shepherd who left 99 sheep to go after one who wandered off. Do you think it was foolish to leave those 99? Another shepherd probably kept them safe. But the one missing sheep could fall off a cliff or be entangled in thorn bushes. Outside of the fold is was easy prey for predators. Besides, it could become a cast down sheep. A cast down sheep is one that has rolled on its back and can’t get up. Gases build up inside it and under the hot sun, it could die in a few hours. When a shepherd finds a cast down sheep, he gently sets it upright, rubs its legs, and if necessary, carries it home.
Did you ever feel like a cast down sheep? Sin has separated you from the Shepherd and the fold, and so you lie on your back paralyzed. Maybe your temper got the better of you at home or at work. Or you found it easy to skip Sunday Masses. Or you failed to break off a dangerous relationship. When you review your life, sins stand out like black blots. You wish you could bleach them away. You don’t have strength to save yourself. Don’t worry. The Good Shepherd is looking for you. You can make things right by going to confession.
Shepherd Duties
A shepherd feeds his sheep. And Jesus feeds us miraculously with the Eucharist, with his very self. Prophetically Baby Jesus was placed in a manger, a feed box. What’s more, he was born in Bethlehem, a name that means “House of Bread.”
A shepherd guides his sheep. Jesus teaches us through church leaders called pastors. The word “pastor” means shepherd. A shepherd also heals and comforts his sheep. Jesus acts to comfort us.
A True Story
One Christmas day night my sister called to say our dad was in the hospital and had already been anointed. I panicked. No one in our family had ever been seriously ill before. Another Sister drove me to the hospital where I saw my dad unconscious, machines keeping him alive. I can still hear their sounds. Back at home I couldn’t sleep. What would happen to Dad? What would Mom do if he died? I was petrified.
Suddenly the words, “The Lord is my Shepherd” floated into my mind, reminding me that God was with me. I repeated those words over and over. Comforted, I finally fell asleep. The next morning I returned to the hospital. Two men were in my dad’s room. One was the doctor who introduced me to the other man. He was a male nurse who had worked overtime during the night to care for my father. The man’s name was Bob Shepherd! No kidding.
Events like these aren’t coincidence. They are really God-incidences, otherwise known as Godwinks. You might be alert to these Godwinks in your life, evidence that God is really shepherding you. He lives up to his name Emmanuel, which means “God with us.”
This experience taught me to pray mantras, prayers that are repeated. When you’re too busy, too tired or in too much pain to even pray a Hail Mary, you can always pray a mantra. The most beloved one is the Jesus prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. You might adopt praying this practice. It makes you aware that God is with you, saving you and loving you.
When have you had a strong sense that God was shepherding you?
A Rousing Christmas Carol
One of our favorite carols to sing is the African-spiritual “Rise Up, Shepherds, and Follow.” Here is one rendition of it:
In the midst of opening presents, feasting, singing carols, enjoying the company of family and friends (and perhaps writing Christmas cards!) you might find time to view my Christmas gift to you: a video that explains a stained glass window depicting the Jesse Tree, the forerunner to our modern Christmas trees:
