Feed My Sheep

Jesus' instruction to Peter after the resurrection was: "Feed my sheep." It was an important instruction, so important that Jesus repeated it three times. Now, I know that biblical scholars typically interpret the three times that Jesus asks Peter whether or not Peter loves Him and the subsequent injunction to feed His sheep as a counter to Peter's three denials before the crucifixion. That's the scholarly interpretation. However, I think it was more than Jesus simply giving Peter three opportunities to re-affirm his love for Him. I think the role of shepherd was key to Jesus' understanding of Himself and His mission and I think Jesus' intention was to impress this upon Peter.

Jesus goes to great lengths in the Gospel of John in describing Himself as the Good Shepherd. Elsewhere, Jesus speaks of the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine sheep in order to search out and bring back one lost sheep. Frequently, in teaching the crowds who came to Him, Jesus sees them and has compassion on them because they are like sheep without a shepherd. The image of Christ as the Good Shepherd was one of the most beloved images of Christ in the early Church.

I fail to understand the vision of Benedict XVI of a "leaner, meaner church with conservative doctrine and compliant faithful"[1]. Is it not his role as chief shepherd to seek out the lost and to work for an increase in the flock entrusted to his care? Yet it seems that he, as well as others, are working diligently to threaten and discipline a restive flock into submission.

If I were a priest, bishop, cardinal, or pope I would be quaking in my clerical collar upon hearing these words of the prophet Jeremiah, which were proclaimed today:

          Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the Lord....
          You have scattered my sheep and driven them away. You have not cared for them.


"Feed my sheep," Jesus said--not drive them away.

[1] Full article:
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/sexandgender/4476/catholic_church_targets_proponent_of_women%E2%80%99s_ordination%3B_feminist_theologian/