Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today we get the Good Shepherd readings in the Gospel. In it, Jesus reminds us of the traits of a good shepherd, one who lays down his life for the sheep.

A frequent image of the Good Shepherd is one in which Jesus is carrying a sheep over his shoulder. One of the more illuminating things I learned in talking with shepherds in the Holy Land was why a shepherd would carry a sheep in this way.

A particularly wayward sheep, one who kept wandering away from the flock or from the shepherd, would actually have its leg broken by a shepherd so that it would have to be carried! The lamb would be carried around by the shepherd for a time until it could walk again. That time of closeness and being carried would create a bond with the shepherd such that when he was healed, the sheep would always stay close from then on.

Of course, none of us is willingly hurt by God. But the natural course of life results in all sorts of breaks and wounds and heartbreaks. In those moments we learn to draw closer to God and to be carried by Christ when our own strength fails us and when we don’t feel like we can go on any longer. The experience of nearness and support we can find in Christ in those moments trains us for a lifetime of depending on him and knowing his voice.

One of the things we have discovered in parenting kids with special needs is that they often want to fall asleep next to their parents for longer than is considered “normal.” When we did some investigating and tried to figure out why we learned something interesting. These kids rely on the nervous system and “normal” functioning of their parents to help regulate their own nervous system so they can fall asleep. The steadiness of the parents’ bodily rhythms helps theirs reset and settle down.

In the same way, our nearness to Christ, the Good Shepherd, especially in moments when we feel broken or out of body in some way, can help us reset and rediscover balance when all seems lost or we know we’ve wandered too far. The routine closeness we find in worship, prayer, scripture, and community helps us to be re-centered and to know the rhythms and routines of holiness that draw us back to the calm and calming center of our faith.

The experience of nearness to the Good Shepherd gives us that sense of stability and grounding we all need to rediscover our place and purpose. I’ve found that it is in times when I’ve needed to be carried by Christ, when I’ve acknowledged that my own strength is not enough and that my own brokenness is too much, that I’ve discovered the deepest truths about myself and about my need for God. We all get those reminders in our life and thank God for a Good Shepherd who will always carry us home and who always is ready to be that steady heartbeat of our lives when all seems chaos.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Robert