DAILY MEDITATION: “I am the good shepherd”

Liturgical day: Fourth Sunday of Easter

Gospel text (Jn 10,11-18): Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Not so the hired hand or any other person who is not the shepherd and to whom the sheep do not belong. They abandon the sheep as soon as they see the wolf coming; then the wolf snatches and scatters the sheep. This is because the hired hand works for pay and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father. Because of this I give my life for my sheep.

"I have other sheep that are not of this fold. These I have to lead as well, and they shall listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock since there is one Shepherd. 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 freely. It is mine to lay down and to take up again: this mission I received from my Father".

“I am the good shepherd”

Mons. Josep Àngel SAIZ i Meneses Bishop of Terrassa
(Barcelona, Spain)

Today we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday. In the first place, the attitude of the sheep must be to listen to the voice of the shepherd and follow Him. Listen carefully, be docile to His word, follow Him with a decision that commits all of existence: the understanding, the heart, all the forces and all the action, following in His footsteps.

For His part, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, knows His sheep and gives them eternal life, in such a way that they will never be lost and, furthermore, no one will take them out of His hand. Christ is the true Good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep (Jn 10, 11), for us, sacrificing Himself on the cross. He knows his sheep and His sheep know Him, as the Father knows Him and He knows the Father. It is not a superficial and external knowledge, nor just an intellectual knowledge; it is about a deep personal relationship, an integral knowledge of the heart, which ends up becoming friendship, because this is the logical consequence of the relationship between the one who loves and the one who is loved; in whom he knows he can fully trust.

It is God the Father who has entrusted Him with the care of His sheep. Everything is the fruit of the love of God the Father given to His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus fulfills the mission entrusted to Him by His Father, which is the care of His sheep, with a fidelity that will not allow anyone to snatch them out of His hand, with a love that leads Him to give His life for them, in communion with the Father because "The Father and I are one." (Jn 10, 30).

This is precisely where the source of our hope lies: in Christ the Good Shepherd whom we want to follow and whose voice we listen to because we know that only in Him is eternal life found. Here we find strength in the face of life's difficulties, we, who are a weak herd and who are subjected to various tribulations.

Source: evangeli.net