I am always a little doubtful when I hear people described as servants.

I remember encounters with public servants who seemed more interested in creating obstacles than helping.

I think of priests who tried to stop women from having their feet washed on Holy Thursday.

But then I think of the former Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis.

He washed the feet of a young Muslim woman with tattoos on Holy Thursday.

Thinking and feeling as servants

When Jesus told his disciples they must be servants, he meant more than doing servant tasks.

He asked them to think and feel as servants did.

Servants were often reminded by their masters to “know their place.”

They were unprofitable, unnoticed, and often viewed as uneducated or unreliable.

They had no dignity to stand on.

St Peter was outraged when Jesus put on an apron and began to wash his feet.

No one chose to do that—let alone the Son of God.

Francis and the shock of displacement

Former Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis, captured this shock when he said priests should smell like their sheep.

In Jesus’ time, kings and rulers were often described as shepherds.

They cared for their sheep and protected them tenderly.

But the metaphor also highlighted the difference between intelligent shepherds and defenceless, easily led sheep.

The priest, like the shepherd, was educated and wise, while the people were seen as ignorant.

Pope Francis’ image would have been deeply offensive to a society that emphasised these differences.

Shepherds on the edge

In Jesus’ world, shepherds were not just protectors—they were outsiders.

They had a reputation for being coarse, rowdy, and irreligious.

Their care for sheep often made them unable to observe religious laws on eating and washing.

Luke’s Gospel stresses that God joined humanity in poverty and exclusion, not high society.

The last people you might expect to be invited to join Mary in celebrating Jesus’ birth were shepherds; they might leave behind a few discarded joints and tinnies.

Smelling like shepherds would certainly mean smelling unwashed.

• Andrew Hamilton SJ is consulting editor of Eureka Street, and writer at Jesuit Social Services.
• First published in Madonna Magazine. Republished with permission.
• Flashes of Insight is an international publication. The editorial policy is that spelling reflects the country of origin.