Good Shepherd Sunday

three wooly's on the road

This Sunday’s Gospel reading speaks of the good shepherd. Understanding the behavior of sheep can help us understand the image Christ presents. His words, “I know mine; and mine know me” are as accurate as it gets when it comes to sheep. It’s true that sheep listen to no one but the shepherd. Don’t believe it? You would have to have experienced what I did the day I visited Cal Poly in Pomona.

I had purchased a goat, and since the college has an active animal husbandry program, went there to learn how to milk my new pet. I arrived on time for the prearranged lesson. The blonde haired college student that would introduce me to the farm talked about the program, then added with a grimace, “The department head is a shepherd,” as if to say, goats don’t count for much. That didn’t matter to me. I had eight children and needed cheap milk.

We had hardly finished tying up one of the milking goats, when someone outside shouted “The sheep are loose!” Both of us dropped what we were doing and ran outside to join other student workers trying to catch the sheep. The curly haired beasts had managed to get past the gate and cross the highway to greener pastures on the opposite hill. They were dispersed all over the grass and under trees, leaving us all worried they’d get hurt. The group of rescuers moved toward the heard from different angles hoping to contain the sheep; yet, every time anyone got a little too close, they beasts scattered. During the confusion, another student came running down highway yelling, “The shepherd’s on his way.”

Half a minute behind him, a lanky middle aged man with sandy hair and glasses appeared at the fencing. He surveyed the scene thoughtfully, raised his chin, and clapped his hands once. In less than a heartbeat, the entire herd of sheep pounded toward him with such speed I thought they’d run him over. A second before they did, the shepherd spread his arm wide. The animals stopped dead inches from the shepherd’s knees, then mulled around his legs as if they knew he was their “daddy.”

The final surprise came when the shepherd signaled a student to help him separate an injured sheep from the herd, a sheep none of us had noticed was in trouble. Then, injured sheep in his arms,the shepherd did an about face, and led the woolly’s back to their safe pens. Naturally they followed like sheep.