My husband was complaining to me today about then Cardinal Ratzinger’s (now Pope Benedict the 16th) book “Called to Communion” . Apparently, it’s not bathroom reading. I will agree with him on that, but I can’t agree with him that Ratzinger appears snobbish in his use of large words. Jim’s argument was that he should dumb it down for “dumb Tennessee boys”.
I disagree.
As the shepherd of the largest flock of believers in the world, the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict will be ever the head of the Church and therefore, like a real life shepherd, must know what is best for the flock. No, he’s not perfect, anymore than the shepherd in the field is perfect. He’s chosen.
By the virtue of the choice he is made more. More than what he was. Like a pile of tiny pieces of metal becoming a watch. And therefore, we must look to the things that he writes not as something above our head, but as something to strive for in our learning.
The real life shepherd uses his voice and his knowledge of the land to steer the flock from danger. He even will be forceful in his attempts to save the ewes from danger. The sheep don’t know why. They see the land, the grass and think: food. water. He sees the land, calculates the time he must have with them, the distance they can travel, the dangers they face.
We don’t get frustrated with the shepherd because he is smarter than the sheep. We get frustrated with the sheep for being so dumb as to run off a cliff. Do we hear his voice? Do we follow the shepherd where we need to go?
John 10:27-28 “My sheep hear my voice: and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand.”
Do you follow the man who has been chosen to lead the flock? And if you do, do you try to understand what he has been led to say to us? Or do you rail against it, saying “It’s too hard!”?
