“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep’.”
Luke 15: 4-6
Finding God in all things is at the core of Ignatian Spirituality, that fundamental tenet that God can be found in every person, in every place, and in everything. Many times, during our journey of faith, we get frustrated in discerning where God may be at any given moment, especially in those difficult periods of our life that cannot be easily explained and which Rabbi Harold Kushner captures so poignantly in his best-selling book When Bad Things Happen to Good People. But then there are those memorable and uplifting moments in life where your faith is rejuvenated as it was for me and my peers at last Thursday’s Board of Trustees meeting at Catholic Charities, Diocese of Trenton.
The best part of our quarterly Board meetings is what we refer to as the “Witness Talk”, that moment where a client of Catholic Charities shares with all of us their unique story of survival, of renewal, their hopes for their future and where you can see God’s hands and footprints everywhere you turn. Our witness speaker at Thursday’s meeting was a young mother named Iashell who shared her incredible journey of initially getting arrested for an obstruction of justice violation several years ago which precipitated a series of challenging events for her and her two young daughters, including the loss of her job and income, periods of homelessness, the repossession of her car, and an assault by her boyfriend that forced her to miss a court appearance related to her initial arrest.
Fortunately for Iashell, as is so often the case, a good shepherd by the name of Yesenia Perez came into her life at a most opportune time. Yesenia is a gifted and caring clinician in Catholic Charities Guidance Clinic, an outpatient mental health program that provides individual, group, and family therapy as well as psychiatric evaluation and medication management. With Yesenia’s helping hand and weekly counseling sessions, Iashell completed an anger management program which along with her community service, helped expunge her record as a first-time offender. Today, Iashell is a proud survivor, having completed the journey that started in darkness but one that is now filled with rays of sunlight, including a new job, getting her car back, and the recent purchase of a home for her family. She now knows how important goal setting can be and the positive impact that one’s faith, family, and supporting network of friends and professionals can play in helping attain those goals. To read more about Iashell’s story of faith and renewal, please see the following link:
http://www.catholiccharitiestrenton.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/SummerSpirit2019_AR2018_web.pdf
Do You Know the Sheep in Your Own Flock?
After our meeting, as I drove back to my parish to attend a funeral for a beloved neighbor, I found myself deep in thought about the role all of us play as the shepherd to our own flock of sheep — i.e., as a husband, wife, or partner; as a parent to our children; as a grandparent to our grandkids; as a son or daughter; as a caregiver to our parents and other love ones; as a trusting and supportive friend to someone in need; and as a colleague to the people we work with. The next day as I settled into the pew at St. Catharine’s Church for the 8am service still groggy after only one cup of coffee, I listened to the first reading from Ezekiel 34: 15-16 that perfectly captures the essence of a good shepherd: “I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest, says the Lord God. The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal.”, reinforcing the role that Yesenia and Catholic Charities has played in helping transform Iashell’s life. Several moments later, I smiled as the Gospel reading for that day just happened to be the Parable of the Lost Sheep which I captioned at the beginning of this reflection (Luke 15: 4-6). Yes, Iashell was lost but she found herself again through hard work, determination, and through the graces of Yesenia and the other folks at Catholic Charities that renew lives and restore hope each and every day for people like Iashell.
So as we move forward in our personal lives and careers, here are some questions that might be of help as you follow your Spiritual Compass:
- Do I really know who the sheep (i.e., people) are in my own flock? The sheep in my home/personal life? The sheep at work?
- Are there any sheep in my flock that “may have drifted away?” If so, are their ways that I could reach out to them and take on a more active role as a shepherd in their life?
- And finally, John 10: 14-15 adds another important dimension of being a good shepherd even when you already know all of the sheep in your own flock. “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me…I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also”. So, are there sheep outside of my own flock that I could reach out to who may be in need of a good shepherd in the same way that Iashell needed a shepherd like Yesenia?
Wishing all of my fellow coaches, colleagues, and friends the gift of God’s abundant blessings and for being such great shepherds to the sheep in your flocks.
Dr. K
