Three imageries are used in the gospel of today: Jesus the good shepherd; Jesus the gate; and we as the sheep. There is a relationship that exists between the three. The good shepherd brings his sheep from the hills after grazing to the sheepfold where he is the gate to the sheepfold. The sheepfold had stoned walls about 5 feet high and the door was about 2 feet wide. The job of the shepherd was not an easy job because he had to work seven days a week, works almost throughout the whole day and he had to protect his sheep from the wild animals such as mountain lions and wolves that were after his sheep. Another difficulty also was that he had to protect the ship from the robbers who come to steal them.
In some ways, we too are like the sheep. We are as vulnerable to the wild animals and robbers as the sheep. St. Peter tells us that “our enemy the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for who to devour.” We are exposed to the evils on the television and on the internet. Going on the internet and you see pop ups that come up with pornographic materials. On TV, there are all these shows that feed our minds with a lot of evil. There is violence in our society, many innocent people being killed by people who are themselves victims of a failed society. We are being plagued by health, financial and family problems. The family is under attack by secular forces that promote same sex marriages, abortion and contraception, pre-marital and extra-marital sex. In Matthew 9:36, Jesus Christ uses the imagery of the sheep to describe us. After performing many miracles, Jesus Christ looked at the crowd that was made up of the sick, the poor, and the disadvantaged, and he was moved with pity. His heart was moved with pity because “they were troubled and abandoned like sheep without a shepherd.” That is our reality most of the time. We are like sheep without a shepherd. It is like nothing is permanent for us. All our hopes for the future seem to be dashed. Things are changing so fast and we are helpless. All the high hopes we had when we were in college seem to be eloping. Just yesterday, everything seemed to be happy, today it is all pain and sorrow. Just a few years back our economy was booming, things seem to be alright and we were buying all these big homes, today those same homes are being foreclosed; just a few days ago, your health seemed to be alright, today, you are on heavy prescriptions. Today, you might be happy that you have a good job, next week you might be told that your company is outsourcing your job or the company is moving to China. We are helpless. The good news today is that we have a shepherd. We have a good shepherd that is ever vigilant – the one that will watch over us and keep us safe from the mountain lions, the wolves, and the robber who seek to take us away from us. What the evil one does given these circumstances is to deceive us that God has abandoned us, we should stop believing. I want to assure you today that the good shepherd is diligently watching over you, just hold firm to him. The question is not whether he will watch over you, the question is whether you will continue to hold firm to him and give him the opportunity to watch you. What our enemy the devil does is to feed you with despair, to make you think God has abandoned you. As St. Peter tells us, our best weapon is to hold on to Jesus, and we can only do that with our faith in him.
Sometimes, we all like sheep are dumb. As a little boy, I had the privilege of being with sheep in the fields grazing. One of the things you notice is that if the lead sheep stops, all the other sheep also will stop. If the first sheep enters into the pond, every one of them will as well. We like sheep just some times follow the crowd and do dumb things. I think about those women who wear high hills boots that make them very uncomfortable to walk in the snow during winter. They have to wear them because according to the fashion magazines, these are the shoes in vogue. I think about young students who will not wear their jackets on a cold winter morning to school because everyone in their click is not wearing one. Even though they might feel very cold, they will pretend they are not cold. I think about many of us who vote for a candidate in the election because Randy Rhodes on the left and Rush Limbaugh on the right have asked to vote for such a candidate. We do not live convince and convicted lives. We just follow the crowd. No matter how dumb we may be, the good news today is that, Jesus our good shepherd still accepts us because we are his own.
In Isaiah 53:6, we are told, “all we like sheep have gone astray, each person going his own way …” Like sheep, sometimes we just wander away. The sheep does not decide to wander away from the shepherd. The sheep does it gradually, unknowingly. It keeps moving away from the rest. Rarely do I find people who tell me they woke up one day and decided to leave the Church. I frequently find people who gradually started wandering away from the church, first by leaving Mass immediately after communion, and then by coming every other week, and then gradually they start coming only once a month and then once a year, and so on and so forth. The good shepherd has taken our sins upon himself. He has patient love for us and he wants to bring you back to the sheepfold.
We like sheep, listen to the voice of the shepherd. I think about that Verizon commercial, “Can you hear me now?” The good shepherd is calling you, can you hear him now? Like the sheep hears the voice of the shepherd, we too must hear the voice of Jesus calling us to himself. It is only in hearing his voice that we can have abundant life. If we do not listen to his voice, we will try really hard, get frustrated trying, yet we will not have fulfilled lives. Let us come to him and be filled with life abundantly.
Labels: catholic, church, Faith, Good Shepherd, shepherd
