“The Lord’s my Shepherd” A detail of a stained glass windows by Christopher Webb, whose signature can be seen on the bottom right: a figure of St Christopher. The window is in St Alban’s Cathedral. Photo by Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P.; flickr
Meditation
Saturday of Easter Week Four lessons addressed sheep. Not many of us today understand about sheep. City-dwellers and non-agrarians probably know more about sheep from the Bible than other sources. But in Old and New Testament times, sheep were to them as sports’ talk is to us.
The lessons hold true today, even as they did back then.
The Psalmist talked of a good shepherd taking care of his flock—leading them to good pasture, still waters (did you know that sheep won’t drink from rushing water? They’ll die unless they drink from calm water), leading on a precarious path where marauders lurk to pounce and eat them, or preparing a table (that would be the field. Sheep are not smart to recognize poisonous plants, so the shepherd would have to prepare the field for them to graze by removing all risky plants) in front of my enemies (sheep will panic in the face of enemies and will freeze. They won’t eat and could die before they relaxed. So a shepherd who makes a field ready and the sheep are so relaxed because of the assurance of his protection that they will eat in front of actual enemies spoke to the incredible trust in the shepherd and the shepherd’s powerful skill). These lessons I learned 30 years ago from reading a great book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by Phillip Keller.
We lived in the Middle East and watched shepherds tend their flocks on the hills, and lead them back to their corrals at night. Quite different from the way other countries manage flocks, but very consistent with the Scripture’s view. A shepherd must lead, not follow a flock.
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