Sometimes we use the name of an animal to describe a person’s personality, or one of their actions – for example: “he ate like a horse” or “she is a snake” or “don’t be a chicken, go for it!” or “what a pig.” We immediately know what these animal descriptions mean.
In today’s Gospel passage from Saint John, Jesus refers to us his disciples as His sheep who faithfully hear his voice.
Now, in normal, every-day language, nobody really wants to be called a “sheep.” It evokes a sense of shyness, and an overall lack of confidence. A sheep is a mindless and uncritical follower of others, someone who just goes with the flow. So, what does Jesus mean when he calls us sheep?
When I was a kid in Peru, I loved the annual fair in the city. My father would take his top pedigree hogs and by the end of the fair, they’d get auctioned to other pig farmers. During the fair, my brother, my sister, and I would get picked up from school, and instead of returning to our farm outside the city where we lived, we’d go to the fair where we’d spend all afternoon. I loved going over to see the sheep since we didn’t have any in our farm. I was intrigued by them. I would try hugging them, they were so soft. They were shy and nervous, and would scare easily. They ran toward the comfort of the flock. They didn’t seem as sharp as the other farm animals.
The truth is that sheep are not very intelligent, they quickly get disoriented, and need to be guided and cared for. They easily get lost if far from the flock, and don’t know how to get back. Sheep are pretty helpless: they don’t have sharp teeth or claws to defend themselves, they aren’t very big or strong, and they can’t run away very fast from predators.
It sounds a bit insulting to be called sheep by Jesus, doesn’t it?
Yet the truth is that we human beings sometimes get quite disoriented, we too lose our way through bad life choices, and we too need someone to pull us back into the fold. We too need someone to protect us, guide us, and heal us. Even though at times we feel strong and independent, deep down, we are weak and fragile by nature.
We all want to be like tigers – top dog and invincible – but the truth is that we are sheep who need a shepherd. No matter how hard we try to do what is right, so often we chose what is wrong. Despite our good intentions, we fail over and over again. We get trapped in our own minds, bogged down by our failures, anxious about what others think of us… we are more like sheep than we’d like to admit.
We deceive ourselves thinking that we don’t need others to succeed – “I don’t need anyone worrying about me or looking over behind my back. I can take care of myself.” We applaud a “self-made man” or a “self-made woman” because we wrongly think that depending on others is a handicap, or a limitation. Society tells us that the goal in life is to be totally independent and self-made.
Yet the Gospel invites us not to be self-made, but rather to build who we are on the firm foundation that is Jesus Christ. Autonomy is the illusion that we do not need others, including God, in order to achieve happiness.
We depend on the Good Shepherd and the other sheep of the flock. To achieve true happiness, we will always need another. Happiness cannot be reached in isolation. True happiness is found by loving and helping others. Love and happiness always involve another person: be it God or neighbor.
We are not saved in isolation, and where we are going, the Kingdom of Heaven, we will not be in isolation. In his vision, Saint John says, “I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.” This great flock worshipped Jesus Christ together, and Saint John heard one of the elders say, “the one who sits on the throne will shelter them. They will not hunger or thirst anymore, nor will the sun or any heat strike them. For the lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them, and lead them to springs of life-giving water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
We cannot thrive in isolation; we must be part the flock. True wisdom is following the Good Shepherd and hearing His voice. Other flocks and other voices exist, we pray that we will hear the voice of Jesus calling us his sheep, so that in our need, we will find strength in Him, and be counted among the great multitude in heaven.
Picture is not mine, link here.
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