“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1:9

On the evening of the wake service for the mother of Benedictine Father Edwin Leahy, headmaster of St. Benedict’s Prep, Newark, I took Father Edwin’s hand to offer condolences. His first remark to me was, “How’s my man?”

I was moved that, on such an occasion of great personal loss, he expressed immediate concern for one of my sons who had recently sought him out for guidance during a particularly difficult time.

After sharing a bit of what had transpired since he had last spoken with my son, Father Edwin’s simple response to me was, “Courage” – a powerful word of counsel that he uses often.

I realized it is a spiritual directive I have failed to consider enough, until Father Edwin.  Now it has found its way into my daily prayer, and what often comes to mind is Alfred Usher Soord’s painting, “The Lost Sheep.” This stunning work of art depicts a shepherd high up in the crags of a mountain, leaning precariously over the rocky slopes with only his staff to steady him, in order to reach down and pull to safety a sheep who had wandered over the edge.

It only takes a slight stretch of the imagination to picture the next frame of the scene: Jesus gathering the animal in his arms and crying down the mountain, “Rejoice! I have found my sheep which was lost!”

In the past, the painting has most often called to mind the words of the Twenty-third Psalm, “The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.” In reminding me that there is someone who rejoices simply in my being in the fold, the painting had always been a source of comfort, a well-spring of peace, a reminder of a very different kind of love.

Today, I am struck by something different – the courage of Christ; the courage that enabled him, out of love, to overcome whatever fear he must have experienced in being Shepherd to the lost.

Jesus moved past his fear, denied his instinct for self-preservation for the sake of another and taught us what it means to truly love.

Now “The Lost Sheep” has become a challenge, an encouragement to journey through the fears that so often keep us from becoming all that God intends – fear of failure, of change, of rejection, of ridicule, of imperfection, of loss, of pain.

If we gather up the courage to really examine our lives, we may gain a new awareness of the many challenges and opportunities lost to fear. We may discover the impediments to our spiritual and emotional growth, and even to our physical health, that have never been overcome. We may come face-to-face with the inertia, fortified by fear, that has often overtaken us and diminished the richness of our lives.

Today I can hear the words of one of my favorite authors ringing in my ears, “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.”

Certainly, as preacher, teacher, healer, Shepherd and Lamb, Jesus’ life was one stretched to the limit, richer than anyone could imagine, and filled with as much pain. No doubt, as the wisest people might suggest, he would acknowledge the pain as the experience that taught him the most and his love and trust in his Father as the courage that allowed him to bear it all.

As rabbi, Jesus would have held the words of Scripture in his heart: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

As Lord, Jesus offers us the same assurance: “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Mary Morrell, writer, editor and consultant at Wellspring Communications, may be reached at [email protected], or Twitter at @mreginam6.