A Shepherd Who Knows the Sheep

Fr. Henri Boulad, S. J.

A Shepherd Who Knows the Sheep

Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 25, 2010

Acts 13:14, 43-52 Revelation 7:9, 14b-17 John 10:11-18

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
Glory to you, Lord.

Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. The Father loves Me because I am willing to give up my life, in order that I may receive it back again. No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it back again. For the Father has given Me this right.”

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Introduction
Good Shepherd Sunday

The fourth Sunday of Easter, whether in liturgical cycle A, B or C, is always Good Shepherd Sunday. The theme comes from the tenth chapter of John, which runs a litany of qualities of a good shepherd: A good shepherd leads the sheep by walking up front, and they gladly follow him. (Jn 10:3-4) A good shepherd feeds his hungry sheep by leading them to green pastures. (Jn 10:9) A good shepherd protects his sheep by warding off wolves and even by laying down his life for them, if necessary. (Jn 10:13-14) Finally, a good shepherd knows his sheep, and they, in turn, know him. (Jn 10: 15)

Only one Alleluia Verse

This last quality of a good shepherd is always singled out on Good Shepherd Sunday by the Alleluia Verse just before the gospel. All the Sundays of the year have three different alleluia verses (one for each of the three liturgical cycles) to announce the gospel. Good Shepherd Sunday, however, has only one Alleluia Verse which is repeated in all three cycles: "Alleluia! Alleluia! I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me.”

A lengthy letter to Benedict XVI

Fr. Henri Boulad, S.J., is an Egyptian Lebanese Jesuit of the Melkite rite. Born in 1931, he is 79 years old. He is four years `younger’ than Pope Benedict XVI who celebrated his 83rd birthday this past April 16. Boulad is rector of the Jesuit school in Cairo. He was superior of the Jesuits in Alexandria, regional superior of the Jesuits in Egypt, professor of theology in El Cairo, director of Caritas-Egypt, and vice president of Caritas International for the Middle East and North Africa. He has given conferences throughout Europe, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, France, Belgium, etc. He has visited 50 countries on 4 continents and has published some 30 books in 15 languages--mainly in French, Arabic, Hungarian, and German.

In July of 2007 Fr. Boulad wrote a lengthy letter to Benedict (which in its entirety can be found on the Internet). It was a personal and private letter meant only for the Pope. The person who was to deliver it to Benedict, however, thought that it was inappropriate, and that it would hurt the Pope’s feelings. So he never delivered it! In 2009 a Canadian, who received the letter from Boulad as a personal and confidential document, started to circulate it on the Internet. Given this situation, Boulad, who had learned that his letter had never been delivered, thought the only fair thing to do was to send his letter to Pope Benedict through the official channel of the Papal Nuncio in Cairo, with a few words of apology. This he did in September of 2009. Till now, no answer has been received from the Vatican.

Shepherding the supreme shepherd

n his letter Boulad undertakes the very unique and courageous task of shepherding the supreme shepherd of the church – Benedict XVI. His letter begins:

Dear Holy Father,
I am addressing you directly because my heart bleeds at the sight of the abyss into which our Church is sinking today. Please excuse my frankness that is filial and dictated both by the “freedom of the children of God” to which St. Paul has called us, as well as by my passionate love for the Church. Perhaps you will excuse the alarmist tone of this letter, for I believe that it is already the eleventh hour and that confronting the present situation must not be further delayed.

Good shepherd Boulad knows the sheep.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Fr. Boulad is a good shepherd who knows the sheep. He knows that their number is constantly declining, and that the churches are becoming empty. His letter to the Benedict continues:

Religious practice is in constant decline. The churches of Europe and Canada are frequented only by an increasing number of aging people who will soon be gone. There will be nothing left to do but close churches or transform them into museums, mosques, club houses or municipal libraries – something that is already under way. What surprises me is that many churches are already in the process of renovation and modernization at great expense in order to attract the faithful. But it is not such things that will stop the exodus.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Boulad is a good shepherd who knows the sheep. He knows they are drifting away at a steady pace. He reminds the Pope that,

France, `the eldest daughter of the Church,’ and ultra-Catholic French Canada have made a 180 degree turn toward atheism, anti-clericalism, agnosticism and indifference. For a number of other European countries the process is on-going. One notices that the more a people has been nurtured and mothered by the Church the greater is the reaction against her. The apparent vitality of the Church in the Third World is deceptive. In all likelihood these new churches will sooner or later pass through the same crises as old Christian Europe.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Fr. Boulad is a good shepherd who knows not only the sheep but also their shepherds as well. He knows that a great majority of the church’s shepherds are old, tired and overworked. Again he reminds Benedict that,

the small number of those who still continue their ministry, and who are well past the retirement age, have to serve multiple parishes in an expeditious and administrative manner. Many of them, both in Europe as well as in the Third World, actually live in concubinage – in full view and knowledge of their parishioners who often approve them, and also in full view of their bishops who can do nothing about it, given the shortage of priests.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Fr. Boulad is a good shepherd who knows the sheep. He knows that the sheep are not listening to their supreme shepherd. His letter makes a point not easy for Rome to swallow:

In the matter of morality and ethics, the injunctions of the Magisterium,[1] repeated ad nauseam on marriage, contraception, abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, clerical celibacy, divorce and remarriage, etc. touch nobody [do not touch the sheep] and only engender weariness and indifference in them. All these moral and pastoral problems deserve more than preemptory declarations. They deserve an approach that is pastoral, sociological, psychological and humane -- an approach that is more in keeping with the Gospel.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Fr. Boulad is a good shepherd who knows the sheep. He knows that they are grown-up adults. His letter makes another point that’s hard for Rome to swallow:

The Catholic Church, which had been the great European educator for centuries, seems to have forgotten that this same Europe has grown up. Adult Europe today
refuses to be treated like a child. The paternalistic style of a Mater et Magistra[2] (Mother and Teacher) Church is definitely off the mark and no longer fits the bill today. Our Christian people have learned to think for themselves and are not about to swallow whatever comes along.

Recounting the negatives

Boulad’s long S.O.S. letter to Benedict recounts not only negatives; the second part of the letter also suggests many meaningful positives. Boulad suggests, for example, that the Pope convoke a synod which would last for three years, and which would culminate in a general assembly (a kind of Vatican III) to bring together the results of the synod and draw necessary conclusions.

Recounting the negatives, however, reassures those of us who feel there’s something wrong with the church today that we are, indeed, on the right track and in good company. Recounting the negatives challenges us to come up with profound and positive thoughts of our own. Recounting the negatives invites us to participate in reforming a church which Boulad says is “dragging behind our times, after having led the world for centuries” and which used to be “the light of the world, the salt of the earth and a leaven in the dough.”

A soul-mate

Fr. Boulad, who undertook the very unique and courageous task of shepherding the Pope, has a soul-mate in Swizz German theologian Fr. Hans Küng. On Friday, April 16, 2010, Küng undertook the task of shepherding the Church’s thousands of bishops. This he did by means of a long and comprehensive letter addressed to the entire Roman Catholic episcopate. (The letter in its entirety can be found on the Internet). His letter begins:

Venerable Bishops,Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, and I were the youngest theologians at the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. Now we are the oldest and the only ones still fully active. I have always understood my theological work as a service to the Roman Catholic Church. For this reason, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the election of Pope Benedict XVI, I am making this appeal to you in an open letter. In doing so, I am motivated by my profound concern for our church, which now finds itself in the worst credibility crisis since the Reformation. Please excuse the form of an open letter; unfortunately, I have no other way of reaching you.

Then Küng’s letter lists a litany of problems afflicting the Church. Among them he makes emphasized mention of clerical sex abuse of thousands of children and adolescents, first in the United States, then in Ireland and now in Germany and other countries. He speaks angrily about the cover-up on the part of the highest authorities in the Church. Küng believes the Church is suffering its worst credibility crisis since Reformation. And he believes “a council [a kind of Vatican III] is needed to solve the dramatically escalating problems afflicting the Church and calling for reform.” Fr. Boulad is an alarmed prophet; Fr. Küng is an angry prophet.

Boulad concludes his long and comprehensive letter with a captatio benevolentiae[3]:

Finally, Most Holy Father, I ask you to forgive my frankness and audacity, and beg your paternal blessing. Allow me to say that I live these days in your presence,thanks to your remarkable book, Jesus of Nazareth, which is the object of my spiritual reading and daily meditation.
Sincerely yours in the Lord,
P. Henri Boulad, sj

Conclusion
John: a shepherd who ”walked up front”

When the shepherd does not know the sheep, the sheep, in turn, do not know the shepherd and do not follow him. Then shepherd and sheep each go their separate way, but under a pretense and guise of being one. That pretense of being one pervades the Church. When, however, the shepherd knows the sheep, the sheep, in turn, know the shepherd, and then the two become one, as the two became one under the pontificate of Good Pope John XXIII.

When Pope Pius XII died in 1958, the cardinals elected Cardinal Angelo Roncalli who took the name of John XXIII. On the day of his `coronation,’ Nov. 4. 1958, against all tradition he rose to deliver the homily. People, he said, have different ideas about what the new pope should be: diplomat, scholar, statesman. The new pope, he said, has in mind the example of the good shepherd who knows his sheep and serves them. Then Good Shepherd John removed his triple tiered tiara, dismounted his sedia gestatoria[4] and “walked up front” as good shepherds do. And the Universal Church gladly ran after him for five very blessed but all too brief years.

[1] The church’s teaching authority
[2] “Mother and Teacher” – the opening words of Pope John’s encyclical on Christianity and Social Progress, May 15, 1961.
[3] A remark to gain good will
[4] A portable chair or throne hoisted on men’s shoulders, which carried the pope on solemn occasions -- no longer used.