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Nagpur (India), Sr. Anula Irvin Suguna OP, 21 de April 2024.- The good shepherd gives his life.The fourth Sunday of Easter is called the Good Shepherd Sunday or Vocation Sunday. This year marks the 61st anniversary of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. While appreciating all vocations, the Church concentrates her attention on raising up shepherds for God's people. The Church also encourages all who are discerning their vocation to pray more earnestly that they may hear and respond to God's call.

GOSPEL

John 10: 11-18

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

STUDY OF THE TEXT: Jn 10:11-18

The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, is one of John’s especially striking imagery that brings along a feeling of warmth, gentleness and glow of safety and protection.

• “I am (Ego eimi) the good (kalos) shepherd” (v. 11a). Ego eimi can be understood as the language that refers back to Moses’ encounter with God (Ex 3:14). It refers to the name of God or God Himself. When Jesus applies I AM to himself, he is subtly identifying himself with God and there are many I am sayings in the Gospel of John. This ego eimi statement tells us that Jesus is the one who can meet our deepest needs and longings.
• The Old Testament uses shepherd as a metaphor for God (Genesis 48:15; 49:24; Psalm 23:1; 28:9; 80:1; Isaiah 40:11). God also appointed leaders to be shepherds for Israel (Numbers 27:16-17; 2 Samuel 5:2; 7:7; 1 Chronicles 11:2; 17:6; Isaiah 44:28). Kalos or ‘good’ used in this phrase means that a person” who goes beyond being good, a person of love and compassion.
• I know (ginosko) my own and I’m known by my own” (v. 14). The good shepherd knows (ginosko) the sheep and the sheep know him. Ginosko is more than superficial knowledge. It involves experiential relationship, a very significant relationship. He knows the sheep (each one of us) because he “became flesh, and lived among us” (Jn 1:14; Phil 2:6-8). Jesus knows his own, because he has lived in our skin and has experienced our joys and sorrows.
• The context of this passage: is a continuation of a conflict with the religious authorities, which started in Jn 9 with the man born blind after Jesus has restored the man’s sight. When the authorities cast the man out, Jesus finds him and receives him as his own “sheep.” The man born blind receives not only physical sight but also spiritual insight, while Jesus tells the powerful opponents that they are spiritually blind. He illustrates this with the contrasting images of the true shepherd on the one hand, and the thieves and bandits who oppose him on the other hand.
• The good shepherd lays down his life. This brings to mind David, the shepherd boy who slew a lion and a bear in defense of his sheep (1 Samuel 17:35-36). This phrase is repeated five times in these nine verses and suggests a division of the passage into three parts.

   

1. The first section distinguishes the good shepherd from the hired hands who run away when danger comes, leaving the sheep in peril.
2. The second one focuses on the identity of the sheep, which is based on mutual knowledge with the shepherd. He knows his own (and loves them, 13:1). And they know him (as in 10:4), as the man born blind, the hero of John 9, comes to know him and to testify to who he is.
3. The third subsection of the passage (John 10:17-18) draws the Father’s love into the image. The mutuality of knowledge between the Father and the Son has been mirrored in the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep.

• “They will become one flock with one shepherd” (v. 16c). Jesus is speaking here of the church, the people of God. We are all one flock. Today the barriers that separate us are likely national, racial, educational, vocational, or financial. Such barriers are inappropriate among Christians. Christ calls us to be “one flock” (v. 16).

MEDITATION

It’s really fascinating to see the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. The shepherd has a way of communicating to the sheep using certain voices that the sheep knows about it. The shepherd walks in front and the sheep follows Him listening to His voice. The sheep doesn’t know the voice of the stranger. Today there are lot of strange voices that takes us away from listening to the shepherd’s voice. Living in the digital world the strange voices in the media and digital gadgets seem to be more interesting and attractive. There are lot of people who give different suggestions as how to live one’s life.

• How to distinguish the voice of the Good Shepherd from the other voices? The best way is to spend enough time with HIM and to be familiar with HIS voice. Also to spend enough time with his WORD, a profound reading of it to understand him.
• Active listening and response are the two elements of the disciples’ answer to the Word. As genuine vocations have declined drastically, how can I help the youth of our time to listen actively to the whispering voice of the Shepherd?

This new life is gained at tremendous cost. The shepherd is going to die to protect His Sheep. God is willing to die to save his people. The hired hand gives the illusion of protection without safe guarding. If the sheep-owner has no shepherd, he will search to find one. If he has a hired hand, the owner will relax, thinking that the sheep are safe. The hired shepherd intends to be neither a hero nor a villain in times of danger but his indifference is likely to result in the death of the sheep in his care.

• There is a lesson here for us. In the letters to the seven churches, Jesus warns the church at Laodicea: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:15-16). Indifference is a serious evil, because lives are at stake. Am I a lukewarm or mediocre religious?
• There are good and bad shepherds today, both among clergy, religious and laypeople. The good shepherd cares about the people in his/her care, whether they are in a diocese, a congregation, or just a few children in a Sunday catechism class. The good shepherd seeks ways to take the lead faithfully, and stands for what is right, even in the face of opposition or danger. Bad shepherds care only about their own welfare.

The shepherd is everything to his flock; their life, their sustenance, and their care is entirely in his hands, Jesus is preeminently the Good Shepherd: He not only loves, feeds, and guards His sheep, but He also gives them life at the cost of His own. The deepest love is manifested in sacrifice, in dying to self so that others may benefit. "By his wounds you were healed" (1 Pt 2:24).

The world today desperately needs leaders willing to set aside selfish gain in order to guide people to true happiness. Every Christian vocation should exemplify the characteristics of the Good Shepherd. Each of us should renew our commitment to follow Christ, as we did on Easter Sunday. Then we should ask: "What am I doing to exercise my responsibility as a Christian leader?"

PRAYER

O Lord, You are my Shepherd, I shall not want; You make me lie down in green pastures, You lead me to the water of refreshment. You have loved me so much and so gratuitously, I who am so small and weak. My sweet Shepherd, what return shall I make to You for all that You have given me? Although I cannot love You as much as I should, You accept my weak love. Give me your most ardent love by which, with Your grace, I shall love You, please You, serve You, and fulfill Your commands. May I never be separated from You, either in time or in eternity, but abide, united to You in love, forever and ever. Amen.

CONTEMPLATION