“I am the
good shepherd, says the Lord, I know my
sheep and my sheep know me.”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is seen as
the Good Shepherd, sent to the people of Israel who were like sheep without a shepherd ( Numbers 27:16-17). However, the Gospel proclaims that he is sent not only to the children of Israel, but to
all those far off - whoever wishes to
hear the voice of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the Messiah.
In the first reading we heard St.
Peter preach – He [Jesus] is the “Lord,” the divine Son that David foresaw at
God’s right hand (Psalms 110:1,3; 132:10-11; Acts 2:34). What does it mean today that Jesus
is the Messiah that God had promised to be shepherd of his scattered flock? (Ezekiel 34:11-14, 23; 37:24).
The call of the Good Shepherd leads us to the healing waters of Baptism, to the anointing oil of Confirmation, and
to the table of the bread of life and the overflowing cup of the Eucharist, as we sing in today’s
Psalm. In other words, we belong to God and belong to and are called to care for
each other and all others.
Today we hear the voice of the Good
Shepherd calling us his own. He awakens in us the response of those who heard
Peter’s preaching. “What are we to do?” they cried.
Individually we are to be baptized
but despite our incorporation into the Body of Christ, each of us goes astray like sheep, as we hear in today’s Epistle, and so we
always need to repent and to seek forgiveness for our sins in the Sacrament of
Penance.
In the Gospel we hear Jesus
say: “I
came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
As the community of the Good
Shepherd then, we are part of the oldest still existing organization in the history of humanity –
the Catholic Church. In the name of the Good Shepherd the Church has
established the first schools and schools in many places around the world for
boys and girls of every race, nation and culture. The Church today educates
more people on the planet than any single organization.
Likewise in health care and aid to
the suffering. No organization provides more health care or emergency relief as
well as ongoing care for the poor and the suffering than the Catholic Church. We
need to proclaim this truth to the secularists who would downplay and undermine
the leaven that the Church is in worldwide society.
It means that we have been and are committed,
for example, to the education of girls and young women. From the time of
St. Marie de L’incarnation of Quebec (whose relics we are privileged to revere
and pray in the presence of) the Church has been engaged in the education of young women and men. An
Ursuline nun St. Marie co-operated with the local shepherd of the flock in New France,
her bishop and now fellow saint (as of April this year), St. François de Laval, first Bishop of Quebec.
This is not simply a recounting of
history. These are those who, like us, are baptized into the life and ministry
of the Good Shepherd. They have helped to shape the education, morals, virtues
and the constitutional structure of our nation and the Western World.
“I came that
they may have life and have it abundantly.”
They are responsible, with us, for the
principles upon which we gather with others to resist the likes of Boko Haram
and Al Quida (the wolves of our day which threaten the flock) those who kidnap
and murder young women who simply want the freedom to learn.
It is often the Catholic Church
that first stands with girls and young women even before governments commit to
their aid. It is the Church that is the first in and the last to leave
situations of disaster proclaiming the love of the Good Shepherd, standing with
and often suffering with those in jeopardy – note the priests and nuns kidnapped
and killed while staying with their people in the horrors of Syria today.
We are called to follow in the
footsteps of the Shepherd of our souls. By his suffering he bore our sins and
the sins of others and he calls us, in penitence for the evil that threatens our
brothers and sister, to act with him in shepherding the poor and the needy and
welcoming all who will be baptized into the community of the Good Shepherd.
Jesus’ suffering is also an example
for us that we need to learn patience in our afflictions and in those of
others, to give ourselves over to the will of God seeking how we may do the
work of the Good Shepherd for the most vulnerable.
Jesus has gone ahead, through the dark
valley of the shadow of death. On his Cross he has become the gate of the sheepfold
through which we must pass to reach His empty tomb - the pastures of life in
the kingdom of the Good Shepherd.
“I am the
good shepherd, says the Lord, I know my
sheep and my sheep know me.”
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