HOW TO BE A GOOD SHEPHERD?

Long ago in a faraway village whose name was lost, a shepherd and his apprentices were leading the flock to graze when one of the apprentices asked:

-Master when we are going to finish our apprenticeship, some of us have taken time and you still do not consider us worthy to carry the trade.

The teacher was silent for a while, making a gesture of thinking, he stayed like that for a while and the more time he passed the more nervous the apprentices became. Finally, as evening fell, resigned to not receiving an answer, preparations began to return when the pastor surprisingly answered.

-Today one of you will finish your apprenticeship, then you will see the answer with your own eyes

The apprentices became happy among themselves and began to whisper among themselves about who would receive the honor, so much was their noise that they hardly heard the weak cry of one of their companions. The youngest of them

"Wait," the boy shouted as he came running carrying a sheep on his shoulders and you could see that his clothes were torn and his skin was bruised but the boy was happy, happy so much that he overflowed with joy.

The rest of the apprentices watched with clear disbelief as the teacher went to the young man and gave him a cane, oh but any cane was giving him a shepherd's cane symbol that his learning had ended. The young man took the cane impressed and asked teacher

-Why me, if I am the young man of your apprentices?

The master laughed -once-said the master-I asked my master the same question, I will tell you exactly what he told me: you can be the youngest of my apprentices but you are certainly the one who has learned the most, you will see this sheep that you bring with such joy she separated from the flock and you did not abandon her instead, you went after her, and returned her to her flock where she belongs. It is certainly the sign that you are ready because you did not settle for being just a pastor if not that you have decided to be a good one and until they learn that, they could not end their learning.

-In that moment it was that the rest of the apprentices understood the words of their teacher and why many of the facts were still apprentices after a long time.

END

Luke 15: 3-6:

3 Then he told them this parable, saying: 4 What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and goes after the one that was lost, until he found it? When he finds it, he puts it on his shoulders joyfully; 6 and when he gets home, he gathers his friends and neighbors, saying: Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep.