Your Report Card

Learning how to be a leaders at church and home

04/27/2026

John 10:11-18 Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.”

One of my favorite authors on leadership is John Maxwell. Many years ago my brother introduced me to him and suggested I read a book called “Developing the Leader Within You.” John Maxwell has one simple definition of a leader. He writes: “Leadership can be summarized in one word, ‘influence,’ namely, influencing people to follow you.” Then he gives this humorous corollary: “If anyone thinks he’s a leader and doesn’t have any followers, he’s just going for a walk.”

We can apply Maxwell’s simple leadership principle to Jesus in today’s gospel. Is Jesus a good leader who influences others to follow him? Oh yes. He’s not just going for a walk, but as the Good Shepherd he leads his sheep into green pastures. And today we learn he takes the final step of true leadership and lays down his life for his sheep. Another catchy saying of Maxwell’s summarizes Jesus’ leadership style: “A leader knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” Jesus is the ideal leader because today he has over one billion followers.

I have learned after 30 years in the priesthood that leadership in the Catholic Church can be further specified beyond simply influencing followers into 3 unique categories. That is, Catholic leaders, specifically pastors, are called to be priests, prophets, and kings. In the Old Testament these three offices were divided among different people. The same person never presumed to be all 3, priest, prophet, and king. When Jesus arrived, however, all three positions were rolled into one, namely, into our Lord and Savior.

Jesus alone is the perfect paradigm of a leader and fulfills the offices of priest, prophet, and king par excellence. We human pastors, by contrast, can perform one or two tasks well, but never all three. Have you noticed this about your pastors? I don’t mean just here at I.C. but also the pastor of our diocese, as well as the pastor of the universal church. We might call these three offices of leadership a pastor’s report card. He might make an A in one or two subjects, but he will invariably make a C or D in the third subject.

Now, what do these three positions do so we can grade our

pastors accurately according to the criteria of Catholic leadership? A priest is a leader who introduces us to the sacred, especially in the sacraments. You have probably noticed some pastors are very natural around the altar, at the baptismal font, in the confessional, and at the hospital bed. Those pastors who help you feel particularly close to Christ when they celebrate the sacraments would get an A in the office of being a priest. Not jus the priests who say the fastest Masses.

The second subject of a pastor’s report card is being a prophet. Think of St. John the Baptist, the greatest and last human prophet. A prophet, therefore, is the pastor who preaches the hard truth, the unpopular truth, the truth that makes people squirm in their seats and say, “I’m going to Mass somewhere else (like Barling), where I hear what I want to hear.” A prophet pushes us out of our comfort zones and silences our echo chambers so we can hear what Jesus has to say on any given issue. Only an unpopular prophet earns an A on the pastor’s report card.

And the third subject is being a king which requires a host of skills of management, budgeting, coordinating schedules, people skills, mentoring, casting a vision, planning for the future, etc. By the way, this role of king is what they least prepare us for in the seminary, and why most pastors tend to be poor administrators. Can you think of any of your pastors who hated to be in the office and complete the daily grind of office work and paperwork? Administration is not the sexy part of being a pastor, but it is a third of his leadership role, and why most Catholic pastors probably get poor marks.

This threefold description of leadership – priest, prophet, and king – can be applied to all leaders, including parents who must lead their families. Oh, now we’re talking. Think about your mom and dad, or look at yourself in the mirror as a parent. What kind of grades would your children give you first as a priest? Did you introduce them to the sacred by family prayer and Sunday Mass, and reading the Bible and family rosary? What grade would you get as a parent who must be a priest to your family?

How about fulfilling your role as a prophet to your family? Did you teach, preach, and push your children to choose the hard road or did you let them follow the easy and wide road, the path of least resistance? And how did you fare in being a king or queen and administer your household, your domestic kingdom? Some parents neglect their boring and banal domestic chores so they can do the more sexy stuff, like plan parties, vacations, shopping sprees, etc. What grade would you get as a king or queen?

Folks, leadership is not just for a few people who run countries, companies, and churches. We are all called to be leaders. And we should look to Jesus for the model of perfect leadership and attempt to emulate him who alone is the flawless priest, prophet, and king. We all fall short as leaders - no one fulfills all three offices perfectly - so at this Mass as we come forward to receive Holy Communion may the Good Shepherd help us to be better shepherds and improve our grades on our report card.

Praised be Jesus Christ!