While the pope is often called a shepherd, it's important to note that he is not the "Good Shepherd" and the flock he tends to is not his own.
Popes are shepherds only in so far as they let Jesus, the Good Shepherd, lead his flock through them, as an instrument of the Good Shepherd.
Pope Benedict XVI pointed this out in a homily for the ordination of priests on Good Shepherd Sunday in 2006.
Jesus now proclaims that this time has come: he himself is the Good Shepherd through whom God himself cares for his creature, man, gathering human beings and leading them to the true pasture.
St. Peter, whom the Risen Lord charged to tend his sheep, to become a shepherd with him and for him, described Jesus as the “archipoimen” – “Chief Shepherd” (cf. I Pt 5: 4), and by this he meant that it is only possible to be a shepherd of the flock of Jesus Christ through him and in very close communion with him.
Furthermore, when Jesus asked Peter to be a shepherd, he said, "Tend my sheep."
Shepherd after Jesus' heart
St. John Paul II wrote an apostolic exhortation about the priesthood and the call to be a shepherd. He begins by quoting from the book of Jeremiah, "I will give you shepherds after my own heart" (Jeremiah 3:15).
He then spends the entire exhortation expanding on that simple principle, underlying how important it is for priests to be shepherd's after Jesus' heart:
God promises the Church not just any sort of shepherds, but shepherds "after his own heart." And God's "heart" has revealed itself to us fully in the heart of Christ the Good Shepherd. Christ's heart continues today to have compassion for the multitudes and to give them the bread of truth, the bread of love, the bread of life (cf. Mk. 6:30ff.), and it pleads to be allowed to beat in other hearts - priests' hearts: "You give them something to eat" (Mk. 6:37).
Furthermore, St. John Paul II offers several characteristics of this type of heart:
People need to come out of their anonymity and fear. They need to be known and called by name, to walk in safety, along the paths of life, to be found again if they have become lost, to be loved, to receive salvation as the supreme gift of God's love. All this is done by Jesus, the Good Shepherd - by himself and by his priests with him.
As the cardinals meet this week, pray that they will select a man who will be a shepherd after Jesus' heart.
