Fr Dominic Savio, in his sermon this morning, speaking on the gospel passage of the Good Shepherd, listed the qualities of a shepherd. Prior to that he was clear in stating that each one of us is a shepherd in his or her own right. Elaborating the characteristics of a shepherd, he said that a shepherd ought to love his/her sheep, keep an eye on the sheep and if necessary risk his/her own life for the sheep.
So far so good. What I did not really find myself agreeing to was what he concluded with: the sheep, he said, has only one duty - to listen to the voice of its master. Well, not that I have a problem with that quality. It is only that the whole responsibility of the sheep is on the shepherd! That for me is unnecessarily adding to God's already hectic schedule. We too ought to take an equal - if not, more - responsibility for ourselves rather than merely dump everything on God.
So far so good. What I did not really find myself agreeing to was what he concluded with: the sheep, he said, has only one duty - to listen to the voice of its master. Well, not that I have a problem with that quality. It is only that the whole responsibility of the sheep is on the shepherd! That for me is unnecessarily adding to God's already hectic schedule. We too ought to take an equal - if not, more - responsibility for ourselves rather than merely dump everything on God.
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