An
elderly woman went to a very kind and smiling doctor's office for a check-up. The
kind and smiling doctor asked if she had any problems. The woman said that she
had a terrible farting problem, but they were silent & didn't smell. In
fact she had farted at least 10 times since she had been in the office, but as
they were silent and did not smell the kind doctor wouldn't have known. The
doctor listened to her story and smiled at her kindly. Then he gave her a
prescription for some pills. He told her to take these for a week and then come
back to see him.
One
week later the elderly woman returned to the smiling doctor's office and
complained "I don't know what you did but those pills you gave me have got
my wind smelling awful, mind you they are still silent but boy do they
stink!" The
kind doctor again smiled and replied, "Good, now that your sinuses are cleared
up we will work on improving your hearing!"
So
the story smells, but it puts a smile in your face. Remember those two words –
Smell. Smile. As Pope Francis would put it: Smell like the Sheep, Smile like the Shepherd.
Pope
Francis reminded us in that Holy Chrism homily “A shepherd should smell like
sheep.” This is because good shepherds
are close to their sheep. Jesus in
today’s gospel says: “I am the good
Shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I
know the Father.” The intimacy of Jesus with the Father, he shares with us.
And he knows us well because he is always close to us.
In
the same way, the closer, more intimate you are with your sheep, the more
comfortable they are with you and the more likely they will be to follow you
when you call. The closer, more intimate
you are with your sheep the better you know their needs and can give them
exactly what they require to flourish.
The closer, more intimate you are with your sheep the better you are
able to protect them. The closer, more
intimate you are with your sheep, the more you get to smell like them.
We
the followers of Jesus should understand that shepherds should smell like
sheep. Our shoes and sandals should be caked with their mud and their mess. Our
skin ought to bear the scratches and the dryness of exposure to wind, sun, and
rain. We should be so frequently among
them that we smell like them, that we smell like their real lives, sometimes
fragrant but more often sweaty, musty, offensive, dirtied from battle with a world
so unforgiving.
And
if we do that job well of being with them, we cannot but feel tired at the end
of the day. But then if we love the sheep, then we end the day with a smile on
our face as we see our sheep safely resting.
Pope
Francis comments: “There is a good and healthy tiredness. It is the exhaustion
of the shepherd who wears the smell of the sheep… but also smiles the smile of
a father rejoicing in his children or grandchildren. We are the friends of the Good Shepherd: this
is our joy. If Jesus is shepherding the flock in our midst, we cannot be
shepherds who are glum, plaintive or, even worse, bored. The smell of the sheep
and the smile of a father…. Weary, yes, but with the joy of those who hear the
Lord saying to us: “Come, O blessed of the Father” (Mt 25:34).
And
our response to this could only be: as in Psalm 80 – Lord let your face smile
upon us and we shall be saved. Psalm 119 - Smile on me, your servant; teach me
the right way to live. And our only wish for our sheep: Num 6 - May the Lord
smile upon you and be gracious to you.
Do
you know how we can make God smile? “God smiles when we trust Him completely.”
God enjoys watching every detail of your life and when He sees us really
devoted to our job of shepherding, God smiles – the smile of the Father, the
smile of the Shepherd.
There
was this social experiment in a Pandora jewelry commercial (click to see video). They lined up six
women whose children are blindfolded and asked to “find their own Mom” using
their “intuition.” One child goes and
starts smelling the women, stops at one and then starts to feel her face. And
as the child touches the curves of her lips, and even without removing the
blindfold, the child embraces the woman. And all the other children did
similarly and all found their mom. The smell of the mom reflects the smell of
her child that is why the child immediately found her and as soon as the child
feels the smile of Mom he or she is then reassured - the child could not go
wrong. Like the mother a type of the Good Shepherd, we too should have the
smell of our sheep, and the smile of the Divine Shepherd.
So
will we smell like sheep? I hope so, for I think, in the end, it will be by
that smell – a good and fragrant smell like that of Jesus adored by shepherds in an animal shed,
Jesus the Good Shepherd who awaits us as the Lamb of God – and that Jesus our
Good Shepherd will know us as his own and gather us to his side as we cherish
that smile which he looks down upon us with love.
References:
Pope Francis. 28 March 2013.
Pope Francis. 2 April 2015.
Lowny, C. (2005). Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-year-old
Company that Changed the World. Loyola Press, Chicago. http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/book_20080721_1.htm
Pandora. (2015). The unique connection.
Blindfolded Children Pick Out Their Moms in Pandora’s Mother’s Day Ad