This Sunday, We the Sheep Wait for the One We Know

In the Gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year A, Jesus Christ says that he is the Good Shepherd who knows his sheep. This is exactly what we have been waiting for — a great person who truly knows who we are, loves us as we are, and leads us where we want to go.

Here are five takeaways for this Sunday’s Mass readings drawn from Sunday Readings columns at this site and the Extraordinary Story podcast.

First: Jesus is great at finding the perfect analogy. He does that here.

Jesus is famous for summing up abstract ideas with concrete images: The kingdom of heaven rises mysteriously, like yeast; we are the light of the world allowing others to see what we do; he is the vine and we are the branches, different but the same as him; and he is the Good Shepherd and we are his flock.

Sheep in Christ’s day were often kept together with those belonging to others in a common pen. Jesus describes how each shepherd would gather his sheep: “The sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”

All the shepherd needs to do is stand at the gate and call out the names of his sheep. They know his voice and their names, so they separate themselves from the others and follow him, eager for food. Then, as they go to pasture, the shepherd “walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers,” he says.

When we follow Jesus, it’s because we hear his voice — the voice of the one who truly knows us. Truly encountering Christ makes us like the Samaritan woman at the well, who said, “Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?” Knowing him well makes us like Mary Magdalene who finally recognizes her Lord after his resurrection when Jesus calls her by name and she answers in joy, “Rabboni!”

Jesus spells out the Church’s role when he says, “Whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him.” The early Church saw Christ’s ministers as gatekeepers — Paul calls them “guardians” and “pastors,” another name for shepherds. To use Christ’s metaphor, think of them as “gatekeeper shepherds.” Their value is that they bring Jesus’s voice to us.

Second: This analogy is perfect because sheep are valuable animals that are clueless and fragile. Like us.

The value of sheep in the ancient world was significant. They were the lifeblood of the economy. Nearly everyone’s livelihood was affected by them. They provided milk, meat, and wool — and even their skins and horns were used. They were even eternally valuable, supplying the yearly Passover sacrifice.

But sheep, then and now, are clueless. They are easily led and easily lost. As my family visited a farm recently, a lamb died in a minor accident. The owners said sheep are like that — they aren’t smart enough and don’t have a survival instinct strong enough to thrive without constant oversight and protection.

Their usefulness and their cluelessness make them perfect representations of us. We, too, could be called “highly valuable losers.” But that means shepherds, then and now, have to be simultaneously humble and dedicated.

Shepherds were vitally important and almost totally overlooked in ancient times. They occupied the lowest rung of the social ladder. They ate simple food, worked outside in harsh weather with bad lodging, and had to be on the lookout for dangerous predators — lions, bears, and wolves. They also had to take care to count their sheep often, and look out for the weak ones: Expectant ewes, newborn lambs, and the sick.

So to call pastors, bishops, and popes shepherds is to compare them to tough and realistic manual laborers. A good bishop has been put in charge of a flock that is often clueless and in danger. So, to be a shepherd in the Church, a bishop or pastor should be like Christ the Good Shepherd who was:

• always on his feet, tiring himself out checking on his flock and attending to its needs;
• always on the watch, careful for whoever and whatever might lead his flock into deadly sins;
• and always ready to help, finding every opportunity to provide the soul-healing sacraments.

And, thank God, this describes many of our pastors and bishops today. It was refreshing to hear from Francis X. Maier, in a talk at Benedictine College, in Atchison, Kansas, describe his interviews with hundreds of American priests and bishops as invigorating and encouraging. He said that the vast majority of our shepherds are good men who are doing their best.

Third: But the main job these “gatekeeper shepherds” have is to open the gate for Jesus Christ.

In the First Reading, Peter’s first act as “shepherd” of the apostles is to stand up and proclaim Christ crucified. In the Second Reading, from the First Letter of Peter, he describes Christ’s sufferings and then identifies Jesus as the true Shepherd. “For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.”

Jesus is the new David, a greater version of the shepherd David who said:

“whenever a lion or bear came to carry off a sheep from the flock, I would chase after it, attack it, and snatch the prey from its mouth. If it attacked me, I would seize it by the throat, strike it, and kill it.”

That’s what the standard is for our shepherds; to hurl themselves, with Christ, at whatever would harm their flock. Gatekeeper shepherds are only worthwhile if they let the voice of the one, true Jesus Christ address their flock and silence all others.  St. Augustine wrote about the task of a Church shepherd:

“Not only let him preach the true Christ, but seek Christ’s glory, not his own; for many, by seeking their own glory, have scattered Christ’s sheep, instead of gathering them.”

In the Gospel, to show how important this is, Jesus changes his metaphor, and sets a task  for himself that is infinitely higher than what he sets for his bishops. “Amen, Amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep,” he says. Later, he reiterates it: “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.”

That’s quite a statement. It’s the same kind of language he used for “I am the Bread of Life” and “I am the light of the world.” What does it mean that Jesus is “the gate”? It means Jesus doesn’t just guard and direct the community like his “pastors” do; he defines the community.

Fourth: The Psalm for Good Shepherd Sunday describes what Jesus promises.

The Gospel ends with Jesus saying: “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

We know exactly what that means, and we know it by heart. Practically everyone’s favorite Psalm is the Psalm for Good Shepherd Sunday, Psalm 23, which, without even intending to, many of us have practically memorized — and it is a description of the life God provides for us forever, starting now.

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want,” it says. We can picture the imagery that follows as a beautiful outdoor scene — or as another perfect metaphor, this time describing the spiritual richness of the sacramenta life. “Beside restful waters he leads me; he refreshes my soul,” we pray, and the Fathers of the Church see in this a description of what baptism does for us.

We pray next, “You spread the table before me in the sight of my foes; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” This describes the anointing of confirmation and the Eucharistic table.

What do the sacraments do for us? They bring the real presence of Jesus Christ into our lives to direct and keep us. They make us his own so that he shares his name with us and walks beside us:

“He guides me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.”

The Lord is my shepherd, and he leads me to the pasture where I will lack nothing — starting at the table he sets before me at Sunday Mass, on which the Shepherd gives everything he has, becoming the Lamb to save his sheep. and presents us with the chalice overflowing with his love, swinging open the gate to eternal life, leading us to a Paradise of abundant life in his pasture, forever.

Image: PickPik

By Tom Hoopes