Not
too long ago I was watching the motion picture Patton on Netflix. Classic movie, great movie, won seven Oscars
including Best Picture back in 1971, and I’m showing my age now, but I can
remember when it was first released. Patton
stars George C Scott and chronicles the legendary General George Patton and his
part in World War II, liberating first Northern Africa, then Italy, then at the
Battle of the Bulge. It’s especially
about General Patton’s hard-headedness and rebelliousness and apparent
reluctance to follow orders and how that got him into trouble. Great movie.
Now
there’s a brief scene in the movie, where two donkeys are pulling a cart
(donkeys - General Patton uses another word for them). These two donkeys are refusing to move,
refusing to budge in the middle of a bridge.
And here’s the entire American seventh army, advancing on German and
Italian troops across Sicily, stopped in their tracks not by airpower or tanks
or soldiers but by two jacka….donkeys.
General Patton comes up and orders the donkeys to be removed from the
bridge and, well, spoiler alert – the scene doesn’t end well for either donkey.
This
scene, these stubborn donkeys came to mind as I was thinking about sheep and
shepherds and what to say about this Gospel, for today we celebrate the Fourth
Sunday of Easter, aka Good Shepherd Sunday.
I was thinking about sheep – generally meek and docile, more easily led,
needing to be led. And I was
thinking about stubborn animals, the opposite of sheep, strong-willed and
hard-headed. These donkeys came to mind,
as did mules. The voice of my mother,
God rest her soul, rang out in my head – I could hear “you stubborn mule” - she
would call me when I refused to be compliant.
Now
if Jesus is the true, good shepherd, and He is, the shepherd who cares for His
sheep, who’ll even go off and search for a lost sheep, then the question of the
day is this – are we to be sheep? Or are
we donkeys? What is the attitude of my
heart – am I willing to be led, to be shepherded? Or am I defiant, stubborn, unwilling to
budge?
Many
of us, I think, start with the premise that I’m right, that my thinking is
correct, that my beliefs are correct, and anyone who disagrees with me must be
mistaken. Church teaching, for example,
is fine in every teaching that agrees with what I think. And wrong in every
respect that I, often in my selfishness, disagree.
This
is especially true in the area of morality – for all of us have had some moral
formation by our secular culture - “this corrupt generation” – it’s impossible
in this media-driven world to escape that.
But the world’s moral formation is, in many respects, at odds with the
law of God, the commandments, the moral teaching of the Church.
For
us to be morally grounded in Our Lord’s way, rather than the way of “this world,”
well that requires some real humility, some real meekness. It requires us to question our own beliefs
and what, immersed in this worldly culture, we’ve come to see as right and
wrong. And I think it requires us to
give the benefit of the doubt to His Church, and her shepherds, which, guided
by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit for 2000 years, have been shepherding His
sheep.
Let
us, then, strive to have the attitude of sheep and not donkeys. By His grace, let us submit our minds and
hearts and spirits, in humility, to His way, to His teaching, so as to let Him
shepherd our lives!
To
be sheep rather than donkeys also requires us to submit to His will for
our lives. It means to listen to Him in
prayer, to discern, to ask Him to show us – what, O Lord, would you have me
do? Where, O Lord, would you have me be? Where, O Lord, are you leading me?
Frank
Sinatra was great, but “I Did it My Way” is hardly the attitude He’s
calling us to have, Him who lovingly shepherds us if we only allow Him. If we’re not the donkey on the bridge holding
up the Lord’s army. Our attitude must be
that of the Blessed Mother to the angel Gabriel - “I am the handmaid of the
Lord. May it be done unto me according
to His will.”
In
addition to today being Good Shepherd Sunday, today is also the World Day of
Prayer for Vocations. We pray especially
this weekend that all people are always open and watching, humble and trusting
God to show them His will for them. To
lead them to do what He wills, to be what He wills, to be where He wills. That prayerful discernment goes for every
vocation, religious, marriage, family, career.
Where,
O Lord, do you want me? For what, O
Lord, did you create me? How can I best
serve you with the gifts and talents and span of time you’ve blessed me with?
We
especially pray this day for increased vocations to the holy priesthood,
permanent deaconate, and consecrated religious life. We pray that young women and men will turn to
the Lord, the Good Shepherd, with this vital question – what to do with my
life? And that many will listen and, if
indeed He’s calling to religious service, humbly respond to His call and not
resist.
I
kept hearing His whisper, the call to the deaconate, first through some other
people, and also through prayer. I had
all kinds of reasons why that was a bad idea, but thankfully, Our Lord is very
persistent, and continued to whisper, each time a little bit louder, until I
knew I had to respond. And what great
joy I’ve found by responding to His call.
Whatever
vocation He calls you and me to, I think there is only joy to be found by
following that call. That joy in knowing
you are exactly where He wants you, doing exactly what He wants you to be doing
with your life, whatever call that might be.
So
sisters and brothers, let us pray that young and not-so-young men and women
will especially respond to the call to the vocation of priest, sister, brother,
deacon. At St. Joseph’s Cathedral in
Buffalo, nearby where I work, a prayer for religious vocations is prayed at
every daily Mass – let us make it our prayer today. Let us pray –
O God, we pray for
all those who hear your call only as a whisper, that they may know that it is
you calling them to service. May they
have the grace and courage to respond to your whisper. I will pray, encourage and support all those
you have chosen for priestly and religious vocations. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment