So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.

Welcome! We are already a few days into the forty-day celebration of Christmas. As Charles Dickens wrote, and I paraphrase, I hope we are all keeping it well. Better than any man ever has.

Today we celebrate another of those special Solemnities established by the people of the Church. 

It was at the First Special Synod of the Church in 1906 that the people set aside two special days, the Solemnity of Brotherly Love, and this day, the Solemnity of the Humble Shepherds.

In 1914, at the Third General Synod, the people would set aside the other special days we honor, the Solemnity of the Institution of the Church and the Solemnity of the Christian Family.

Let’s place ourselves in the environment of those days. 

In 1906 the Church had been organized for only nine years and was facing significant resistance and persecution. In the face of those struggles what did the people of the Church focus on? What did they do? The placed their focus and emphasis on, and called each other to work at and live, love and humility.

Those people saw the story of the Good Samaritan and the action of the shepherds who were called upon to visit the infant Jesus as their model.

This was no mistake, rather it was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which brought about this conviction to love and humility.

The 1906 Synod speaks of us as being drawn to the Church and to the Lord’s table as the true source of life. We are called to draw close just as those shepherds were called to draw close to the long-awaited Messiah in a stable. We are called to partake of the Bread of Life, and we need those who will bring it to us. They are called to act as those first shepherds – hearing, going in haste, believing and declaring. 

Throughout subsequent Synods the needs of the Church for humble shepherds, priests who take after the Lord’s love and humility was regularly discussed. How do we train and support them? There is desperate need for that. Thus, we take up a special collection today and pray for that very purpose, to train priests who are humble and loving – not lords and rulers – not princes – but servant shepherds.

If there is cause for hope it is this – many are stepping up to serve, to enter those three years of training needed. They are sacrificing much and will be called upon to sacrifice still more. They willingly are laying their lives on the line in absolute self-sacrifice and effacement to stand in the breech ushering us to meet the newborn King. Let us love and support them.