Our fallen nature rebels against self-sacrifice and even more so, against the idea of giving our lives for another. It is only through grace that we are able to love perfectly and purely. Only through grace can one be made ready to die for Christ, or for the salvation of those who belong to Christ. Only with the grace of God can we properly value both material and spiritual things. There is a hierarchy of values that can only be properly seen and appreciated by those who have received this grace from God.
It is not a noble thing to exchange something of higher value for something of lower value, or to exchange things of equal value. Every materialist (economist) understands that the goal is to exchange things of lesser value in order to obtain things of greater value. The laborer values his earnings more than he values his time and labor, and so he makes the sacrifice of his time and labor to obtain his earnings. The demons, who are ever eager to corrupt or destroy us, are constantly working to influence us to place false values upon everything. They love to see us place a greater value on material things than upon spiritual ones. We are all too ready to esteem the body above the soul.
We are familiar with the dilemma of so many women in our society today. They must place a value upon the life of a baby in their womb; and a value upon the convenience (pleasure, reputation, etc.) of their own lives. In comparing the relative values of these two, many are led to put very little value upon the life of the pre-born baby; and so the life of the child is sacrificed for the pleasure or convenience of the "mother."
It is only with the grace of God that we are able to properly value all things. Our pastors must ever strive to obtain/keep this grace alive in their souls. It is true that God can and does make use of hirelings, but He can do much more for us if we have good shepherds guiding us, rather than the hirelings. It is, therefore, in our own best interest to pray, and make sacrifices so that our shepherds will be good shepherds and not hirelings; or even worse: thieves and robbers.
The Church often seeks out men from the Religious orders, who have already made the sacrifice of material things, in the pursuit of spiritual things, to be shepherds of Her children. Religious, by their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, have set material things in lower estimation and spiritual things in greater esteem. Yet, the world and the devils never cease to tempt these souls away from these noble and true values. It is only by the grace of God that they can live up to the goals before them. Grace is given to us through the sacraments and prayers. It is so necessary for us to pray for our pastors, that God has even made it a command. The fourth Commandment insists that we not only obey our parents, but love, assist, and pray for them also. Our pastors fall into this category of parents.
In addition to this, we must become true shepherds of our own souls. We must learn to place a higher value upon those things that God places higher value upon. We must love living things more than non-living things; we must love our bodies more than material things; we must love our souls more than our bodies; etc. Ultimately, we must love God more than anything else, even ourselves; we must even love Him more than everything else combined. It would be foolish to loose God, even if we were to gain the whole world.
May we each become good shepherds through God's grace and learn the true value of all things. Only in this way can we love God as we ought to love Him. The two greatest commandments can only be kept by good shepherds. Love God with our whole being, and love our neighbor as we love ourselves. The sacrifice is asked of us every day. Do we love God more than we love ourselves? Do we love our neighbor as we love ourselves? Are we willing to sacrifice things of lesser value to obtain things of greater value? Will we sacrifice the physical life for the benefit of the spiritual life?
We don't expect our pastors to lay down their physical lives for the physical lives of others (this would not be a true valuation of lives), but we do desire that our pastors should be ready, willing, and able to lay down their physical lives, for the benefit of our souls. We desire this in the lives of our pastors, and we must likewise ever strive to be the same good shepherds to ourselves. We cannot be this naturally, so we must ever beg of God that we and our pastors be this through His Grace.