Octave of St. Thomas of Canterbury (5 Jan)
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
Today is the Octave of the feast of St. Thomas of Canterbury. Last week we assessed the significance of his life and martyrdom. Today we will consider the lections assigned for this feast.
The reading from the epistle to the Hebrews shows us the true nature of the Priesthood of Christ. “Every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things that appertain to God: that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins: who can have compassion on them that are ignorant and that err: because he himself also is compassed with infirmity: and therefore he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.” He did not take this honour upon himself of his own accord, but was rather descended from Aaron (the Jewish priesthood was hereditary). “So Christ also did not glorify himself that he be made a high priest; but he that said unto him: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place: thou art a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchisedech.” There were many priests descended from Aaron, because the ministry of each one was brought to an end by his death. Christ alone has an everlasting priesthood whereby he is also able to save them that come to God by him. It was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent and undefiled and separated from sinners. He did not need daily, as the other priests to offer sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s, for this he did for once for all in offering himself, and now ever lives to make intercession for us.
The Gospel from St. John (which we heard today) reflects the theme of Christ as the good shepherd. The image of Christ as the good shepherd has often been portrayed in rather sentimental ways, but the biblical basis suggests a very different interpretation.
In the Old Testament the image of the shepherd is associated with that of a ruler. God is the true shepherd of Israel and his people are the sheep of his pasture. Perhaps the most famous image of this is Psalm 23 “The Lord is my shepherd”. King David had himself originally been a shepherd, and the true leader of Israel was portrayed as a true shepherd, while the bad leader as a false shepherd. The prophet Jeremiah denounced the false shepherds who destroyed the sheep of God’s pasture (Jeremiah 23). The prophet Ezekiel rebuked the leaders of his own time as false shepherds, but looked forward to a future messianic leader who would be the true shepherd who would regather Israel. “I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd” (Ezekiel 34: 23).
Jesus, as the fulfiller of the hopes of Israel, saw himself as the true shepherd of his people. He had compassion on the multitude who were as sheep without a shepherd, in other words leaderless without a leader (Matthew 9:36). He sent his disciples to preach and heal in his name as sheep among wolves (Matthew 10:16). He assured them that they were the little flock, the faithful remnant of Israel, to whom the kingdom had been given (Luke 12:32). He justified his fellowship with social outcasts with the Parable of the Lost Sheep, in which the true shepherd seeks out and finds the sheep that was lost (Luke 15). In the same way Jesus saw his mission as especially directed to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
The parable which we heard today of Christ as the good shepherd is part of his final challenge to the Jewish nation and its leadership at the Feast of Tabernacles, a few months before the Passover where he met his death. It is sometimes said that St. John’s Gospel has no parables, but this passage is clearly an example of a parable drawn from the life of first century Palestine.
The first image is of sheep in the sheepfold. “He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth in some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” (John 10:1-2). Christ himself is the door through whom the sheep can enter into and out and find pasture. The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but he is come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.
The second image is of the contrast between the true shepherd and the hireling. The sheep follow the true shepherd because they know his voice. They do not follow a stranger because they do not know the voice of strangers. Christ himself is the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. “He that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth” (John 10: 12). The wolf catches them and scatters the sheep. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care for the sheep. The good shepherd knows his sheep and is known of them, and lays down his life for them.
The image of the good shepherd is that of the true ruler of Israel, but the parable points to one who as the good shepherd exercises his kingly rule by service and self sacrifice. His enthronement and rule come through reversal, repudiation, suffering and death. He is the Suffering Servant of Isaiah who was despised and rejected, who has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. St. Peter refers to him as one who, “when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: who his own self bare our sins in his body on the Tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls” (1 Peter 2: 23-25).
True Christian leadership should be based on that of Christ the Good Shepherd. A later successor of St. Peter, St. Gregory the Great, states: “He, by despising death, hath shown us how to do the like: he hath set before us the mould wherein it behoveth us to be cast. Our first duty is, freely and tenderly to spend our outward things for his sheep, but, lastly, if need be, to serve the same by death also. From the light offering of the first, we go on to the stern offering of the last, and, if we be ready to give our life for the sheep, why should be scruple to give our substance, seeing how much more is life than meat? And some there be who love the things of this world better than they love the sheep; and such as they deserve no longer to be called shepherds… He is not a shepherd but an hireling which feedeth the Lord’s sheep, not because he loveth their souls, but because he doth gain earthly wealth thereby. He that taketh the shepherd’s place, but seeketh not gain of souls, that same is but an hireling; such an one is ever ready for creature comforts, he loveth his pre-eminence, he groweth sleek upon his income, and he liketh well to see men bow down to him.”
These words are as relevant now as they were then. Let us pray that we will be preserved from hirelings who do not care for the sheep in our own time and place, and that our leaders will model themselves on the example of Christ the Good Shepherd.
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