Annual Theme - 2004 - 5
Jesus Barbecues fish
 "Feed my lambs! "Tend my sheep!" Feed my sheep!" John 21.15 - 18
In one of the most remarkable resurrection stories, Jesus talks with Peter on the shores of the Sea of Tiberias. After tending to the physical needs of the apostles by barbecuing fish for them, he turns to Peter's very deep spiritual need. With compassion and gentleness  he  asks Peter three times, "Do you love me?" In a commentary on this gospel reading Richard Rohr says, "The beautiful gracious love of Jesus. He could not bear that for the rest of his life Peter would carry the guilt of those three denials. And so three times he allows him to say publicly and proudly, "Jesus, I love you. Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you."

This is the mark of the true shepherd, of the one who leads us to healing, leads us to truth, leads us to personal freedom to be all that we can be. A remarkable transformation occurs in Peter because of Jesus' action. Now he is free to follow the Lord, to undertake the task of spreading the Good News about Jesus, to lead others to a personal relationship with the Risen Lord. He indeed is ready  to feed the lambs, to tend and feed the sheep.

This year Bishop Albert LeGatt has asked us to focus on Jesus, the Shepherd King. What does that mean for us as catechists?
We, like the apostles of the early church, are called to give witness to the Risen Lord. Not only are we called to share knowledge we have gained over the years, but more importantly, we are called to share our own personal relationship with the Risen Lord. We cannot Shepherd by only sharing facts, we cannot shepherd by only explaining the rules, we cannot shepherd if we are not in relationship with the One whom we are sharing with our students.

As catechists, if we truly want to be good shepherds, we must by our example show our children what it means to be in relationship with Jesus. We witness through the way we relate to the children we teach, through our words, and more importantly through our actions. Our witness to the Lord will enable our children to freely respond to Jesus' question to Peter, "Do you love me?"

This reminds me of Anthony de Mello's story The Lost Sheep found in the Song of the Bird.

      A sheep found a hole in the fence and crept through it. He wandered far and lost his way back.
     Then he realized that he was being followed by a wolf. He ran and ran, but the wolf kept chasing him, until the shepherd came and rescued him and carried him lovingly back to the fold.

     In spite of  everyone's urgings to the contrary, the shepherd refused to nail up the hole in the fence.

How will we choose to shepherd our children this year?