SHEPHERDS ARE THE PRIVILEGED

Shepherds, often little boys and girls who tend sheep, are very often the people to whom Our Lord and Our Lady give special messages and visions. It seems shepherds are the ones who are given the most revelations which are sometimes meant to direct the actions of the most important leaders in the world. Yes, the ones who have a humble occupation who care for simple creatures are meant to inform the powerful. 

Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta; the children of Fatima to whom Our Lady confided secrets which were instructions for the Popes were shepherds who cared for sheep. They were busy, when Our Lady first appeared to them. She told them of the "worse war" that would come after World War I if men did not repent and turn to God. Previously, in 1846, at La Salette in France, Our Lady appeared to two children, Melanie and Maximin who herded cattle. Our Lady spoke to them in pithy words, and warned as to the famine that would befall men if they did not stop their blasphemy and did not keep holy the Sabbath. At both Fatima and La Salette, the children were given profound prophecies that would have bearings on the lives of millions and yet at the time they were considered lowly peasants by most everyone else. 

Some centuries before, in 1608, at Siluva, Lithuania, Our Lady appeared to a group of shepherd children. She wept rivulets of tears and lamented that Siluva was no longer Catholic but had been made Protestant by Calvinists. Much aggrieved was she that the site where she appeared had once been a Catholic church, but this sacred soil had been given over to the animals for grazing. Here Our Lady challenged the dominant religion of that time and place - Calvinism - but she made herself known to little children who kept control of lambs. 

His mother and St Joseph were the first to see Baby Jesus, but after them, came the shepherds. In the mystical vision given Padre Pio, he beheld the shepherds were the first to visit Baby Jesus. Pio, writing in the first person, as he was describing the Crib, wrote, "Only some shepherds, who had been busy watching over their sheep in the meadows, come to visit Him. Heavenly visitor had alerted them to the wondrous event, inviting them to approach his cave." Padre Pio had been a shepherd from a young age. It was only in the fields when he moved his sheep to lush pastures that the Holy Spirit spoke to him and told the young boy that in order to sanctify others, he would have to first sanctify himself.  

Pio knew the life of those boys with sheep who were the first people to visit the Divine Infant! But it's hard for us who are not mystics to have a deeper sense of the lives of those who were given the sublime privilege of being the first to call upon and adore the Christ Child. My friend, Patrick O'Hearn has just published, The Shepherd at the Crib and the Cross which imagines the life of Nissim, a shepherd who has been raised by devout  parents to welcome the Messiah and prays that he will meet Him when He comes. Nissim's father taught him the prophecies of Micah who foretold that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. Then on that holiest of holy nights, an angel comes to Nissim's field to tell him that the Savior has been born and that he's invited to come to the manger where he will find Him. 

This is entirely in keeping with the arc of salvation history.  Patrick's book pays fine homage to the office of shepherd, long raised up by Our Lord, but who are otherwise given scant attention by those who consider themselves their betters.  Their humble post in life does not exclude them from the highest mystical privileges, it is their preparation.

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The Shepherd at the Crib and the Cross makes a wonderful Christmas gift for children, they are, of course, the target audience. But it is also for adults who may enter into the life of Nissim and travel with him to the Crib, and have the sweetness of childhood faith revived in their souls. I like it as a coffee table book because visitors who are not Christian / not practicing may pick it up and find they are not intimidated by it; the humility of the central character Nissim may disarm them. It can be read by parents and children together, even acted as a drama, with the biggest role going to Nissim, who as a shepherd is the person Our Lord often gives a privileged role not given those of higher status.