TEXT: The Holy Gospel according to St. John 10:1-10

Jesus is our Good Shepherd!

He guards the gate of the corral of the field with his own body, as did the shepherds who lived in the days of the Gospel writers.  Like the ancient shepherds, our Lord takes his role as Shepherd seriously.  The sheep are to be protected from those who would destroy the flock.

In the community, (or town), sheepfold, the shepherd would simply call his sheep and the sheep would follow confidently.

Beloved sheep of God, we live and are saved through Jesus Christ!

We love him supremely who calls us into our place of worship and communion with our Good Shepherd.

At night, I have often laid in my bed and looked into the darkness of the night and told Jesus that I love him.  This is not a bad practice, beloved, because Jesus loves you too.  It is good to tell Jesus you love him and mean it.  It is good to tell his Mother that you love her and her Son, Jesus.  It is good to remind ourselves that we are loved and that we love God, because God so loved the world he gave... (John 3:16-18).

Like sheep, we follow the One we can trust fully, the One we love, because he has shown himself to be worthy of all our trust and obedient love.

There is a great message here for us in today’s Gospel.

1 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber;

There are many who proclaim themselves to be something great.  They enter the flock of God as sheep and proclaim themselves to be the "hope" of the sheep, the bearers of good news, yet, they have not entered through the Door.  Jesus is the Door.  There is no other way than the Way the Truth and the Life that is Jesus.  Jesus established his Church to show us the Way into Christ is through faith and baptism (Mark 16:15, 16) through the preaching of the Gospel message through the apostles.

St. Thomas More said -- "Your sheep, that were wont to be so meek and tame, and so small eaters, now, as I hear say, be become so great devourers, and so wild, that they eat up and swallow down the very men themselves."  (Utopia)

Such have been the ways of evil men who have not entered in through the Door, Jesus.

There is no other way into the fold except through Christ.  Any other way, other than Christ to the sheepfold, is the way of thieves and robbers.

But, there is more here than just this approach for us.  It speaks of something deeper, when we read it from the perspective of the Messianic role of Jesus.  Jesus came as the Way.  Jesus is also the Door.  He is there to protect the sheep in the corral.  We enter through the Door, because he is the Door.  He is also the Shepherd who comes into the fold to care for the sheep he loves, because he is also the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

2  but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

There is no other Messiah that is true and real other than Jesus, the Christ.  He is the Anointed One, sent to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

3 To him the gatekeeper opens; the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

There were those who would watch the sheep while the shepherds were away at night from their flocks which were kept together.  The "gatekeeper" is like one who knows the shepherd and opens for him.  I like this analogy of the Church’s Holy Father and Magesterium, keeping the gate for our Lord Jesus.  The Church opens to Jesus, knows his voice, and becomes the voice of our Lord, following his will in all things.  The sheep know the voice of Jesus in the Vicar of Christ.

4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."

How lovely is this analogy.  Jesus brings all of his own out.  He goes before the sheep.  The sheep follow him.

Do you desire, beloved, to know if you are a real sheep?

Do you desire to test this reality?

DO YOU and I FOLLOW JESUS CHRIST?

When Jesus calls us, do we desire to follow him?

Do you know the voice of Jesus?  Or, do you follow the stranger’s voice?

Listen...A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.

It is well that we remember this passage, because it is the test for our own relationship with Jesus.

If you are not following Jesus, then, God offers you grace to begin following him.  And, yes, if you are following Jesus, then, God offers you more grace, grace upon grace and mercy, to continue to follow him all the days of your life.  The Lord is my shepherd. . . (Psalm 23)

Some did not understand...

6 This figure Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7 So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
8  All who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not heed them.
9 I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

In Jesus, there is freedom and peace.  In Jesus there is going in and going out in Christ.  There is contemplation and Eucharist and the liturgy of the Word, and, there is apostolic work in the fields.  There are more sheep.

The Good Shepherd desires only our good in him!

Yet, beware,

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Let us never follow the hireling, the one only in the ministry for money and greed.  Let us follow the true Shepherd and love God and his Church and Magesterium.  Let us listen to God’s voice.  Because, "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

These words echo over and over again.

This is the desire of God, the goal of salvation...not slavery -- I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

God gives and give and gives -- abundant, rich in Mercy.  How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim the Gospel message -- this message of abundant life in Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd, the Door, the Way, the Truth, and, the Life!

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.



Deus et Sanctissima.