Good Shepherd Sunday

29 April 2012. Today the Church celebrates the fourth Sunday of Easter, or what is commonly referred to as Good Shepherd Sunday. Today's Gospel reading comes from the Gospel of St. John (10:11-18) which provides for us Jesus' self-proclamation as the Good Shepherd.

Although a passage that is often referred to in Christian life (the image of Christ as the Good Shepherd is found in the earliest catacomb artworks), this selection for St. John's Gospel bears repeating.

I am the good shepherd.
A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
A hired man, who is not a shepherd
and whose sheep are not his own,
sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away,
and the wolf catches and scatters them.
This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd,
and I know mine and mine know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I will lay down my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice,
and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
This is why the Father loves me,
because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.
I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.
This command I have received from my Father.

I pray to be a sheep who truly knows Christ "just as the Father knows [Jesus] and [He] know[s] the Father." It is this interior life of God--the relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, existing in perfect unison in the one person of God and in one Divine Will--that Jesus proclaims all of His sheep will share in as they know Him and He knows them.

God help us all to be truly sheep of our Good Shepherd.

Image: Tomb showing Christ as the good shepherd at the central cemetery of Kufstein, middle of the 19th century.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

25 APRIL 2010. Today the Church celebrates the fourth Sunday of Easter. With this Sunday's Gospel reading, the liturgical current begins to move in a new direction. While Easter and the two Sundays that followed focused on the events of Jesus' appearances in the weeks after the Resurrection, now we begin to focus more on the role of the Risen Christ in the life of the Body of Christ on earth--we His believers and followers.

Today's readings are found here, but the Gospel reading today bears repeating on these pages:

Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one can shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (Jn 10, 27-30 RSV-CE)

From this Gospel passage, today is known as Good Shepherd Sunday. But, the imagery of the Good Shepherd is not new to believers of Jesus' day. In fact, Jesus is reaching back to the imagery of the Prophet Ezekiel to describe the grace of the Lord's love that flows abundantly for all:

I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will watch over; I will feed them in justice. (Ezek 34, 15-16 RSV-CE)

This is powerful stuff. Notice that there is no justification necessary to receive the love of the Good Shepherd. There is no call for us to rummuge around in ourselves to find that piece of ourselves that is worthy of the Lord's love. Indeed, the love of the Lord is spilled out on us in abundance not because of what we have in our interior, but because of our exterior--we are created in His image and out of His love. We are worthy of the love of God because we are loved by Him.

I have heard it expressed this way: there is no need for us to get our act together to be loved by God. Even in our brokenness, our sinfulness, and our failings, the Lord's love still seeks us out and desires to provide us the nourishment that we need through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the the sacraments of the Church made available to us all, through which we each have the opportunity to receive God's grace.

Jesus the Good Shepherd will seek out the sheep that are lost. He will bring back those sheep that have strayed. The sheep that have been crippled and wounded by sin will have their wounds bound and healed by His love. The weak of the flock will be strengthened by Him. And, He will watch over the fat and the strong. None stray from His gaze, and none of the sheep can be snatched from His hands, as none can be snatched from the Father.

In this most beautiful imagery we find that none of us can be taken from the love of God. No matter what we do--no matter what--we are still the beloved of our Creator. We are still the sheep of the Lord's flock for which His love is never ending.

That is why Jesus says: "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish . . . ." As the Good Shepherd who loves His sheep, Jesus has laid down His life for us His sheep, to give us all eternal life with Him in the resurrection. Remember, we can never get too big for the love of God. Jesus' love and His redemption are sufficient to save us all, if we but follow Him, our Good Shepherd.

IMAGE: A third century catacomb painting of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.