REFLECTION Sunday´s Gospel

4^th Sunday Easter A (15 May 2011) Fr James McTavish, FMVD

We have a good shepherd!

I remember once being at school and feeling totally lost. I was a new boy in the school and felt alone. I remember making a prayer to Jesus to help me and immediately after a fellow pupil approached me who was later to become a great friend. In Jesus, we really have a good shepherd who knows us, who knows all our needs and when we are lost he comes to find us. He will leave the 99 sheep of the flock in search of the lost one and when he finds it he carries it joyfully home on his shoulders. How many times Jesus the good shepherd has come to rescue us – in that moment of being lost in sadness and he sends a friend to cheer us up, or going astray like a lost sheep and we encounter a person like a teacher or a priest who can give us good advice to set us on the right track again.

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday and it is also a day when we pray for vocations. How great to respond to our vocations, the vocation we all received in our baptism. We are not meant to be lost sheep all our lives but can enjoy participating with Jesus as shepherds. Two days ago we celebrated the lives of three little shepherds – Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia, the little shepherds of Fatima. They were only 7, 9 and 10 years old so age is no barrier to being a shepherd. Sometimes in our modern world we struggle to envisage what it is like to be a shepherd as the only sheep we see are on TV or in the movies. Recently I went on a pastoral visit to Australia and was able to visit a real Aussie sheep farm. It is hard work to be a shepherd!

Each one of us has sheep that are entrusted to us. If you are a parent then perhaps you have little sheep to take care of to nourish in the faith. Some occupations really have shepherding as a component like being a teacher and having to guide a flock of school kids. Even some of our friends and relatives can be like lost sheep. It is interesting that often people are “lost” do not at first appear to be so. I met a man at a birthday dinner. I asked him how he was. He told me he was fine. He was well dressed, had a gold watch and was smiling. Then he reassured me that he was fine which I found interesting as it was as if he was trying to convince himself not me. Before we sat down at the table he said “Really my life is fine.” I told him that that was great. When we were at the table he said “Actually just between us two, my life is a total mess.” Many people are lost in money, lost in vices like alcohol or gambling, lost because they do not know what their life is for. We all need a shepherd to guide us!

Jesus declares himself to be the good shepherd because there are many bad shepherds around. He said “I am the good Shepherd and the good shepherd gives his life for his sheep.” The figure of God being a shepherd was very common in the old Testament and we are all quite familiar with the famous psalm 23 – “The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.” We have a good shepherd in Jesus, who suffered for us. The second reading today declares that “Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:21-25)

Let us be joyful this day. We may be a little foolish at times and go astray like lost sheep but we have a good shepherd who is vigilant, who loves us and cares for us. He will give his life for us. Let us show that gratitude by trying to be shepherds to others remembering what he said to Peter “If you love me, feed my sheep.” Amen.