Pbro. José Juan Sánchez Jácome.- It has become one of the most beautiful pages of the Bible. It is a text in which the most intimate longings of the human being converge, it is a common quote for so many people, it is a source to which everyone goes to quench their thirst, it is a word that is at the same time kind and powerful that floods us with the presence of God in truly crucial moments of our existence.
Psalm 23 immediately captures our attention and produces a very special sensation, as it reveals with astonishment the image of God as a true shepherd. It connects us with the vital experience of a believer who, in the midst of danger, not only has the serenity to point to God as his shepherd, but also the emotion to sing the goodness of the Lord who guides and protects him.
The psalmist, who has managed to experience God as a shepherd, can recognize—beyond the critical moments—how the Lord leads his entire life, going ahead of his steps, making him feel his secure protection, and enveloping his life in peace and tenderness. That is why he crowns this prayer by assuring that he will remain in the house of the Lord all his life.
This vital experience of the psalmist continues to be the same experience of so many people who have felt comforted by the tenderness and shelter of the Lord, through Psalm 23. It may be that we lack familiarity and more precise handling of many other excellent texts from the Sacred Scriptures, but this prayer remains essential to savor the presence of the Lord and to feel his protection in the moment of danger.
Not only simple people have recommended and proclaimed the beauty of this psalm, but also great writers have been fascinated by the depth of this biblical prayer that, in addition to revealing the divine nature, makes us respond to the love of God by feeling his tenderness and protection.
Among the literary references, which can well be cataloged as a true testimony, it is worth noting the reflection that the French philosopher Henri Bergson made when speaking of this psalm: “The hundreds of books I have read have not given me as much consolation as Psalm 23: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…”
For his part, H. W. Becher refers to Psalm 23 as follows: “It is the nightingale of the psalms: small and with ordinary plumage; that sings timidly in the shadow, but its song has filled the entire world with a precious melody; more beautiful cannot be conceived. Blessed be the day this psalm was born, for it alone has calmed more pain than all the philosophy of the world.”
Both authors, in different times and places, highlight how the contribution of this psalm has no comparison with the thought generated by all the philosophy of the world. A single psalm has been capable of giving us consolation and hope. In the same way, it has made us experience that God does not disregard anyone, but rather overcomes all difficulties and travels all paths until he finds us.
The confidence and sensitivity that this biblical text awakens provoked greater joy when Jesus Christ presented himself as the Good Shepherd, embodying in his person all the implications of such a kind image.
By appropriating this image, Jesus reaffirms that he has no political pretensions or otherwise, but compares himself to the Good Shepherd. A shepherd because he knows us, walks with us, is in the midst of the sheep, goes ahead of the dangers to safeguard the people entrusted to him, and because he is capable of giving his life for the sheep.
The people perceived that the way Jesus Christ spoke was not a simple discourse, that he did not romantically use a bucolic image, but that Jesus fulfilled it in his person by traveling the towns, igniting hearts with his preaching, attending to people, healing the sick, and showing exquisite sensitivity and closeness to sinners. They came to recognize with astonishment that Jesus could not conceive himself without the relationship with his sheep, without the encounter with people, whom he came to consider as something very much his own.
One of the aspects that immediately flourishes in this image is tenderness and kindness. We are before an image that conquers the heart with its beauty. But beyond the tenderness that this image exudes, we cannot fail to see the strength and courage that characterizes a shepherd. Regarding this, Saint Boniface says:
“Let us not be mute dogs, let us not be silent sentinels, let us not be mercenaries who flee from the wolf, but solicitous shepherds who watch over the flock of Christ, announcing the design of God to the great and the small, to the rich and the poor, to men of every condition and every age, insofar as God gives us strength, in season and out of season, just as Saint Gregory wrote in his book on the pastors of the Church.”
In the Pastoral Rule, Saint Gregory had pointed out: “The pastor must be alert so as not to seek, driven by his passions, to please men more than God, nor desire that they love him more than the truth.”
Saint Thomas of Villanova refers to the qualities that should not be lacking in a good shepherd: “There are four conditions that the good shepherd must meet. First, love: it was precisely charity the only virtue that the Lord demanded of Peter to entrust him with the care of his flock. Then, vigilance, to be attentive to the needs of the sheep. In third place, doctrine, in order to be able to feed men until leading them to salvation. And finally, holiness and integrity of life; this is the principal of all qualities.”
For his part, Pope Francis highlighted that the good shepherd must go ahead of the sheep, in the midst of them, and behind the sheep. Ahead of the sheep because his mission is to guide and show them the way with astonishment. He must, therefore, have experience of God’s love so that his steps are firm and he does not wander with the sheep.
The Lord Jesus came to be a friend and very close to his disciples, but the Gospel also assures that at many moments they felt astonished and fearful seeing him full of the Spirit of God. The Lord, without ceasing to be our friend, is the shepherd, the one who provides a vision that opens our horizons to long for the kingdom of heaven.
However, if the shepherd only places himself ahead of the sheep, he would cease to be relevant, he would be considered very distant and unattainable. Therefore, he has to be in the midst of the sheep, like Jesus who ate and drank especially with those who were publicly considered sinners. The good shepherd must live with people and share their joys and sorrows, which is part of his life so that friendship and trust are strengthened. Hence, Pope Francis says that the shepherd must have the smell of sheep.
The good shepherd must also go behind the sheep to approach those who have strayed and those who have lagged behind. He must attend to those who are suffering, as well as those who have been left behind wounded and excluded. A quality of a shepherd is to care for the weak, the small.
We usually give a moral tint to the image of the lost sheep. And we speak of “wayward sheep” or “black sheep” when someone strays from the path and lives in sin. However, Jesus as the good shepherd did not look at her only as a “bad” sheep, in need of conversion, but as a sheep that suffers and dies far from the Shepherd. That is what moved his heart. So the Lord will not come only to make us “good”—which also—but to take us home.
It is necessary to imitate Jesus, the good shepherd, who never speaks of what he has not lived. If he asks us to forgive, it is because he has forgiven us before; when he begs us to love one another, it is because he has loved us before. That is where his authority comes from, and that is where the moral authority in our shepherding comes from. Jesus has not been content with teaching us the way, but walks with us and even gives himself to us as food so that we do not faint. He is shepherd and food. I know he cares about me, I know he loves me, because he died for me. How could I not trust him?
Therefore, the tenderness and strength of the shepherd are required, for as Benedict XVI says: “The Church needs shepherds who resist the dictatorship of the spirit of the time.”