Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd; I know my sheep, and mine know me.” (John 10:14)
Every year, the Fourth Sunday of Easter is called “The Good Shepherd Sunday” as the Church liturgy is always taken from Chapter 10 of the Gospel of St. John, which presents the image of Jesus as “The Good Shepherd.” Yesterday, Monday, the Gospel continued from the same chapter, which further tells us of Jesus as the loving shepherd who leads and cares for us, His sheep. Up to today, Tuesday, the Gospel reiterates what Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)
The first Christians during the early times of the Church always depicted Jesus as the Good Shepherd, more than being the Crucified One on the Cross. Tracing its roots from long before, it was the most obvious representation of Him in old Christian arts like paintings and sculptures. Just as this image was a source of inspiration of the earliest Christians, many Catholics today still hold on dearly to this portrayal of Jesus. Personally, “The Good Shepherd” has always been my most favorite title of Jesus. I look at the picture below and see myself as the content smiling sheep leaning on Jesus!
Having the Good Shepherd as a yearly recurring theme is both a beautiful reminder and a striking call to all of us of how our relationship with Jesus must be. To state it simply, we are reminded that Jesus is the only one True Shepherd and we are all called to follow Him and remain in His flock.
Some people, however, might find it to be just a fascinating adaptation of a biblical passage. Others might even say that this illustration of Jesus is mostly for children, being that He is pictured cuddling a lamb or two and surrounded by sheep in a grass field. But it is not a mere analogy. It is God’s own words- bringing Himself closer to us and beckoning us to come closer to Him. The truth is, if we earnestly gaze on the Good Shepherd image and reflect deeply on what it means, we will be touched and realize that it’s so much more relevant for all of us grown-ups who are in need of direction; who always find ourselves in the midst of suffering, sin, temptation, and chaos. Like a sheep, we hunger, we thirst, we get lost, and it is the Good Shepherd who feeds us, nourishes us, and rescues us. How we really need this image of Christ to console and reassure us in this life.
Like the Psalmist in Psalm 23 said, God is our Shepherd and we are the sheep of His flock. As long as we stay close to Him, our body and soul are taken care of. In God, therefore, we lack nothing and don’t want anything more of this world. He fills us in spirit and provides our temporal needs as well. The Shepherd leads us in the righteous paths, as we are morally weak, and protects us from every evil and death when we are in the face of danger. Jesus reaffirmed this Psalm from the Old Testament when He said, “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11) Out of His love for us, He risked and sacrificed His life to save our own life. He suffered willingly during His Passion and died on the Cross so that we can attain eternal life if we enter Heaven.
As we pray the Psalms and read the Gospel, we proclaim that the Lord is the Good Shepherd. But are we true members of His flock? Are you one of His good sheep?
The good sheep hears the voice of the Good Shepherd, follows Him, and lives in His ways
To be able to become a part of this flock that benefits from the salvation that Jesus offered His life for, we need to be, first and foremost, members of the Catholic Church. It is the one true Church that the Good Shepherd Himself founded. Through Him as “the Gate,” the good sheep enters this Church and there he “finds pasture.” (John 10:7, 9) It is where Christ lets us partake of His precious Body and Blood, and as good sheep of His fold, we gratefully and joyously receive Him in the Sacraments.
How comforting it is when Jesus said that He knows each and every sheep! This means He knows each of us by name. Not only that, He knows our inmost being. However, the relationship has to be mutual. If you are to be a good sheep, you must also know your shepherd’s voice and faithfully follow as you hear it.
“But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” (John 10:2-5)
There are many instances when the thought of God comes to your awareness. In the Mass, you hear the Word of God spoken through the priest. While you pray devotions like the Rosary, you speak of God’s life in your own voice. When you watch and listen to Catholic speakers, TV programs, and audios, you hear about God’s righteousness and their charismatic or scholarly interpretations. As you read about the faith in Catholic books and stuffs, your mind sees the words. When you do religious acts, all your senses get a feel of God, as you are engrossed in performing the rituals. They are all useful instruments to increase the presence of God in your day-to-day life. However, it is possible that you only hear the ‘sound’ but not the ‘voice’ of God. To hear God’s voice is to follow Him; and to follow Him is to live in His ways. Thus, it is your words and actions that will define whether you are hearing His voice and living in His ways; whether you are a good sheep or not.
You might be well-versed in our faith or others see you practice acts of religiosity, piousness, and devotedness. But it is never enough. Yes, these are the foundation of a strong faith, but it’s only the start. We must put them to good use in our life. If the teachings and the Word of God do not echo in how you treat others or in how you make decisions, then you can’t say for sure that you hear the voice of God.
In Sunday’s homily, the priest said that a person who has done something wrong or bad surely looks or acts ‘different.’ He meant it to say that a stubborn sheep, in the fold of all good sheep, is easy to recognize- a stubborn sheep does not go where the flock is led. And we must be careful not to be this person or stubborn sheep that causes disunity. For we know that it is the work of the wolf, the evil one and his fallen angels, and their human followers, to take the sheep that do not belong to the good sheepfold and scatter them. Through prayer, you must ask God for the strength and the will to always remain in His flock and not become an instrument of division or animosity.
To be a faithful follower of your leader, who is Jesus The Good Shepherd, you must hear the voice of God speaking in your heart. When you do, His light shines in your thoughts and radiates in your words and actions. The voice of Jesus is tender and His ways are gentle. He speaks of love, kindness, compassion and mercy. Do your words express tenderness and your actions gentleness? How then can you say that you are a following sheep to your shepherd, if you treat your loved ones or other people unkindly, coldly, or indifferently, lacking compassion and mercy?
Many times the voice of God, through the Holy Spirit, is speaking to you and giving you many chances to do good to your loved ones and to others, and subsequently better your life. The story of the lost sheep (Luke 15:1-7) that Jesus spoke of in a parable shows His care for the sinners by doing all He can to search for them, save them and bring them back to the flock, and the genuine happiness He feels when they return to Him (See previous post: The Parable of the Lost Sheep). You might have the desire to find God, but still, you fail to reach out to God. But God wants you to know that He always reaches out to you in different ways, such as giving you particular blessings or problems that serve as wake-up calls, to give you a chance, because He’s concerned about you. God’s voice is always trying to speak to you. But it’s either you don’t hear it, or you’re aware of it, but you deliberately choose to harden your heart, because your mind and reasoning tell you so. This sounds like a stubborn sheep. We can all be stubborn at times, but to our own detriment. How hard can it be for anyone to be loving, kind, compassionate, and merciful when the Good Shepherd Himself is the very image of it?
When God is calling you to follow Him, should you remain stubborn or harden your heart? As in the Psalms, we know that the Good Shepherd always guides us to the right path, and “whoever enters through [Him] will be saved.” (John 10:9) Knowing this, what is preventing you from following His tender voice and gentle ways? Fear? Hatred? Pride? Through God’s mercy and grace, you must sincerely try to discover whatever it is that’s hindering you and overcome it.
The Second Reading of the Good Shepherd Sunday from the First Epistle of Peter talked about the example of Christ. “When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten.” (1 Peter 2:23) Thus, in following the Good Shepherd, the good sheep succeeds in making the difficult but noble choice of choosing to love than to anger, to forgive than to fault, to humble than to harm, and to make peace than to persist in conflict.
With honesty and humility, let us examine our ways if we are truly good sheep of the Lord. Whose voice are you really following- That voice of your own in your head? That tempting and provoking voice of the wolf? Or the loving voice of the Good Shepherd? You will know the answer by the fruits of your ways. Do your thoughts, words, and actions heal and serve as source of joy and peace to those around you? Or do they hurt and become a source of pain, sin or unrest to others even to those you love?
Listening to Jesus, and responding to His call is the way by which you can show your love and fidelity to Him. Let us not resist His voice. Learn to follow His shepherd ways.
The good sheep becomes a good shepherd too
Just as we are the sheep to Jesus the Good Shepherd, we too are invited by God to be a good shepherd or a good leader to those people who are entrusted to us or over those whom we have the authority. When Jesus said, “just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;” (John 10:15), it means that each one of us have an authority to obey and a sheep that we need to be a good shepherd to. The priest in his homily last Sunday said that just because you’re a father to your children, or a priest to your parishioners, doesn’t make you instantly a ‘shepherd.’ He explained that it takes effort, real effort, in order to become a ‘shepherd’ to the people entrusted to you. It starts by praying for them, doing good things for them, treating them well, making yourself a good example to them, and guiding them towards the right path.
Likewise, he said that being a shepherd is not just for priests, parents, or jobs like doctors who have patients entrusted to them. All of us have a responsibility to try and be a ‘shepherd’ because all of us have people and things that are entrusted to us. But not everyone is able to answer the call of being a ‘shepherd.’ It could be that God entrusted you with a talent or skill that people depend on you and learn from you. But you used such talent in unholy ways. Perhaps you have long been asking God for someone and He finally entrusted you with a companion and a relationship that He wants you to cherish, care for and grow. But you threw and wasted it away. Or God has made you a part of a devout group of lay people that promote the Catholic faith. But you were not as committed to perform efficiently.
Whatever it may be, God calls on His sheep to be shepherds too and He constantly sees how we are responding. Do we give up and abandon it? Do we complain and ask for something else? Or do we learn from the Good Shepherd Himself and strive to imitate Him?
Let us not settle in simply being shepherds. We must try to be ‘good shepherds’ at that. The priest added that he’s a “good priest” because he makes an effort to be ‘good.’ He shared that it really needs much faith in God and hard work to be one. Thus, the question, he said, for all of us: Are you a good shepherd? Are you a good servant to your community? Are you a good parent to your children? Are you a good friend to your siblings? Are you a good lover to your loved one? And like a good sheep that follows the voice of The Good Shepherd, similarly, we can only be a good shepherd to those entrusted to us if we follow the voice of Jesus in our minds and hearts. Jesus is the central image of what a good shepherd is like- loving, kind, patient, strong, and selfless in sacrifice.
I agree with the priest about making an effort to be a good shepherd as it is not easy. Because of modernity, the voice of God can be shut off from our hearts and replaced with various distractions like social networking, smartphones, movies, television programs, or unwholesome music. Sometimes even though you’re a practicing Catholic, you can never be too confident and rely on your own self-control. You can still get tempted and not be able to fully guard yourself from the subtle cues, wrongful ideas, distorted thinking, confusing rationalizations, or immoralities usually found in these forms of entertainment. The influence can slowly build up in you and potentially affect your values if you don’t make a godly stand. When that happens, you then become mediocre or a hypocrite in your faith, even when you’re not aware of it. Other forms of plagues are false sects, religions and prophets and occult practices, which are spread out too. All these things, which result from modernity, are among what Jesus referred to as “strangers,” “thieves and robbers” and “wolves” that try to snatch the sheep away from Him (John 10:5, 8, 10, 12). We must not let them take us away from God knowingly or unknowingly.
How can we be good shepherds to the very own flock entrusted to us if we are not able to shepherd ourselves against these malice around us? Thus, we must be ready to make the effort and have a firm resolve to be a good shepherd like Our Lord, starting with ourselves. By doing this, we will be able to give the people, relationships, and things entrusted to us much love, kindness and patience, and exhibit strength and selflessness in times of trials and difficulties. The Good Shepherd always walks ahead of us and with us. We must take courage and follow as He leads.
Each day, you must look within yourself and see if your thoughts, words and actions are truly pleasing to Jesus The Good Shepherd. He is calling you to be a good sheep and a good shepherd that follows His ways. He reaches out to you to be kind, patient, forgiving, humble, compassionate and merciful; to love as He loves.
Psalm 23
A Psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want;
2 he makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters;
3 he restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil;
for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff,
they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
for ever.
Jesus The Good Shepherd, have mercy on me!
Mama Mary, pray for us!
Amen.
She graduated cum laude from the University of Santo Tomas, the country's Pontifical and Catholic university, with an AB in Legal Management and minor units in Theology.
As an unmarried woman, prayer holds a central place in her daily life, with a focus on the Rosary and the Divine Office. Embodying her faith, she emphasizes the growth of her inner spiritual life, guided by the wisdom of Carmelite spirituality.
God manifested to her in a unique and radical manner, which made her know Who He truly is and led her to total surrender of her life to Him.
She has studied the Bible with her family, developing a particular fondness for the Old Testament.
Her adorable and intelligent toy poodle is a delightful companion in her daily life, bringing warmth and joy to her home.
Her hobbies include reading about everything, learning Japanese and German, listening to music and playing the flute.
In her leisure time, she enjoys gaming on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch OLED, Nintendo 3DS, iOS and OS, and collecting things related to PlayStation and Nintendo.
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