Jesus the Good Shepherd

“I am the Good Shepherd, says the Lord; I know my sheep and mine know me.”

In the Gospel of John we are given beautiful insight into the life and role of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Not only does Jesus lead us but he walks with us, guides us, anoints us and never abandons us. This image of the Good Shepherd is a reminder for us to experience the living, relational God, the Emmanuel God who is always with us.  The challenge is that we have a tendency to forget that what God has told us from the beginning as true. Jesus depicts us as the sheep of His flock for a reason. We are so easily led astray and it isn’t soon after that we feel God is the one who left us. Today in the Gospel reading of the Good Shepherd, Jesus reminds us that no matter what He will always be there for us and a part of our lives as much as we allow Him.

Many times in my encounter with the poor, the homeless or the distressed, there comes a cry that begs for the care that only the Good shepherd can give. One recent experience I had with a man named Tee in the nearby park was a very life giving moment. After seeing him a few times in the year, we always talked for long periods of time and almost always he expressed to me that he needed help, spiritual help. He said he felt alone and abandoned by his friends, his family and in many cases felt abandoned by God. I remember telling him that God never leaves us; He is always with us even when it feels like He’s not. He began to cry as he reached out for a hug; it was a beautiful moment because it was so simple. All this man needed was somebody to tell him that He was loved, that God was with him and it shattered his own thoughts of abandonment and cleared his day.

The unfortunate thing is that so often we are confound to believe that we aren’t worthy, that we are alone, that we should be ashamed, and afraid so why bother? There might be so much going on in our lives that in the mix of all the chaos and feelings of rejection we begin to think that we have no help, and that God is not even around to listen so why even bother to pray? These are the thoughts that are alive in our society and sadly it is part of the division that is present in our world. It’s what the evil one wants: to separate us from perfect union with God.

Today the Good Shepherd reminds each of us, that He is there at the moment of our suffering, in our darkest night. This union is a time to hear his voice, the voice of the Shepherd that accompanies us out of love. Jesus the Shepherd calls us to move out of those thoughts that tell us we are alone and move into the comfort of his guidance. It is a reminder to move into a life of sacramental grace by returning to His care and renewing our baptismal promise. Jesus knows us by name; He cares for us and loves us. He will always find us if we have strayed and even then will He hoist us up on his shoulders. Not only are we called to be the sheep of the Shepherd’s flock but we are also called to be Shepherds of Love, leading all to know the true Shepherd. May we come to know Christ the Good Shepherd, the God who walks among us, and never abandons us. Amen!

A Shepherd's Love

Some years ago, while I was about 16 my father had his own little ranch back behind our home. It was a pretty big piece of land, one that grew lush green in the spring. When it rained, the water all gathered up at the bottom of the valley. My father had sheep in his land and every morning he found one who was victim of the wolves who visited the night before. This happened a number of times, finally my dad came to us as a family at the dinner table and asked me an my brother to join him in sleeping in the barn to scare away any predators. That evening me an my brother packed up sleeping bags, pillows and blankets for our little adventure we would be having. I remember the night being so calm you could hear the wolves howl in the distance. The sky was so clear that the stars could be seen for miles. That night we slept on the roof of the barn inside a huge cardboard box so we could shoot the wolves from the top. As the night went on, the storm clouds grew closer an closer, it started to rain, an thunder shook the ground. As the sky lite up from the lightning, crashing and popping only got louder and louder. After a few minutes, our cardboard shelter was ruined and we were forced to climb down inside. By the time we got inside the barn we were all soaked. All I remember is falling asleep from being so tired that night. Using the sound of a thousand drops of water every second to make me fall asleep. When I woke up to the rain hitting my face, I remember seeing this huge black figure with arms stretched out looking down on me an my brother, with a blanket in hands to block the rain. Protecting us, an doing everything possible to keep us dry. It was my father. He had sacrificed his whole night sleep to protect us. Ironically, it was his sheep that he was sacrificing, but his sheep he was protecting. Just like my father sacrificed himself for us, so does Christ right? Of course, God sacrificed his only son so that we could have eternal life and I think that alone is amazing for us to understand. It was out of love that he did that, out of compassion and its great to know God was thinking of us at that time.

I think its only fair that I share the ending of this story even though how inspiring it is.
The "Wolf" we were looking for turned out to be our family dog that killed the sheep
And...
The rain never stopped, it got harder and louder. We ended up running home in the pouring rain, laughing.