In Defense of the Hired Hand

In the past I've heard the reading from yesterday's gospel (John 10:11-18 ) as a criticism of those who do good works in exchange for pay:

12. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.

It seems that the criticism was not that he worked for pay but that

13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

It seems to me that this has text has been used to imply that it is a higher calling to be a shepherd than a hired hand. Yet the problem was not that the hired hand earned his own bread by the sweat of his brow (Gen 3:19), it was that he cared nothing for his sheep.

Many people - doctors, teachers, and carpenters both earn their own bread and "care for their sheep." What could be a better life?

As I posted earlier this morning, each of us needs to discern a personal vocation. No "state in life" (i.e. lay, religious, single) is inherently superior to another. What matters is that we honestly discern our calling.