*What makes a good pastor?*
The figure at the center of the series ‘Band of Brothers,’ is the Captain, Richard ‘Dick’ Winters. He was the ideal officer, close to his troops, yet with a discernible distance, a man of the utmost integrity and probity, willing to bend the rules when their absurdity is apparent.
He was loved by his men; his soldiers declared they would follow him anywhere. In battle, he reveals the leadership qualities of a good shepherd of the flock, a bishop or pastor.
Dick Winters exhibited the two key attributes of what is needed in a good shepherd in the Church, as in a good officer. In the first place, he was willing to lay down his life for his men – or his sheep. He does not run away at the approach of the wolf: that is what the hireling does.
Winters reminds me of the great Archbishop of Canterbury, St. Anselm, a man with all the attributes of the Good Shepherd.
Monsignor Ronald Knox once wrote that only three Archbishops of the See of Canterbury had been canonized since the Norman invasion in 1066: St. Edmund, St. Thomas (Becket), and the great St. Anselm.
He draws a fascinating conclusion about how each of the three men came to be canonized. St. Edmund was made the archbishop because he was a saint. St. Thomas Becket became a saint because he was an archbishop. St. Edmund “learned to be great in spite of being good,” St. Thomas “learned to be good in spite of being great.” Only in St. Anselm were both characteristics found from the beginning: he was both great and good.
St. Anselm, as a leader of men and shepherd of the sheep, prefiguring the martyrdom of his successor, St. Thomas, was willing to oppose the attempts of the State, in his case the King, to control the life of the Church. For him, “Eucharistic coherence” led to exile. He was willing to lay down his life for the sheep and lead in battle. He refused to run from the wolf, even if the wolf wore a crown. Although always known as a peacemaker, he would not compromise his principles or deny the truth.
Does the office make the man, or the man make the office? For Becket, as Knox describes, it was clearly the office, but for St. Anselm, and for Dick Winters, the essential combination of goodness and greatness were there from the beginning.
The officer most despised by the men of Easy Company, was not Winters, but the officer during the Battle of Bastogne, and in many of the firefights, hid in his foxhole, too timid, cowardly, and fearful to lead.
In the fog of battle, physical and spiritual, soldiers and sheep need good and great men. There are many who are good, but few who are great. Perhaps the good men in the Church might consider if they want easy company, or to be an Easy Company man.
Excerpts from Fr. Benedict Kiely
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