The Good Shepherd’s Care
Dear Friends in Christ,
One of my roles here at St. John’s is to guide young children in our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program. It is a remarkable method of introducing children as young as three years old to the Mystery of God, modeled after the work of Maria Montessori. I would like to share with you an excerpt from The Good Shepherd and The Child: A Joyful Journey, a book by Sofia Cavaletti and others who developed the CGS method in 1954.
“It is especially when children are in a situation of suffering that they identify with the sheep the Good Shepherd embraces in his arms and rests on his shoulders. In the drawings from the children who are hospitalized, sometimes for serious illness, it is significant to see that they draw the sheep in such large proportions.
Young children [I would add, also us adults!] need the protective quality of love, and even more, they hunger for relationship and intimacy. They are also at the stage when their personalities are being formed through a series of relationships. Both needs are fulfilled in the parable of the Good Shepherd.”
The book goes on to recount an experience with a three-year old child, Michael, who suffered serious separation anxiety, crying extensively every day when his mother left him at school. The catechist decided to present to him the parable of the Good Shepherd, even though usually we would wait until later in the year. Michael became deeply involved and immediately made the connection that he was a sheep, something the children often don’t realize until they are five or six. That day, when his mother picked him up, he proudly told her, “Mommy, mommy! I didn’t cry today!” and later he explained why. He said, “I don’t ever have to be afraid again because I have the Good Shepherd to take care of me.”
We also invite the children to listen to a prayer that another shepherd of long ago wrote as he was pondering this same beautiful truth: “The Lord is my shepherd; I have everything I need.” Even very young children understand this simpler translation of Psalm 23 without any further explanation.
What could it mean for a child to be able to state, with all seriousness, “I have everything I need,” even when suffering the physical and emotional pain of serious illness or separation from a loved one? What could it mean for that child’s parents?
What would it mean for each of us to say, “I have everything I need,” even while also begging for the desires of our hearts—for healing, for peace, for justice, for love. How can we hold this complex truth in both our hands: “I have everything I need,” and at the same time I still beg for miracles.
Over and over, I discover that the things that children need are the same things I need: love, relationship, intimacy-- true companionship with the One who knows me, calls me by name, and gives me everything I need. It is a great mystery how we find that companionship with Christ through each other, our completely imperfect human relationships and human frailties somehow pointing us toward the One who perfectly satisfies the deepest longings of our hearts. We need each other to experience in the flesh who Christ is for us. This is what it means to be the Church.
I invite you to reflect this week on how you experience the Good Shepherd's care, even in difficult circumstances, and how you are able to be a Sign for others, directing them to the One who cares for each of us with such tenderness.