The image of Christ the Good Shepherd is one of the most recognised images of Our Blessed Lord. However as he presented himself as the Good Shepherd Jesus wasn’t very original, he didn’t come up with anything new. The image of a shepherd was known and cherished by the people of the Old Testament. They referred to God who appeared to Abraham, Jacob, Moses and many other prophets, kings and holy people as their Shepherd. Those simple nomads from the Middle East who were called to be the People of God didn’t complete sophisticated studies on religion or God but they were attentive observers. They had observed that God was always with them, that no matter what, he would be always in their midst like a shepherd is in the midst of his flock. They described God as their shepherd because that was the language of their daily life. By the way, a few months ago there was a movie called “Exodus: Gods and Kings” I don’t want to go into details about the film but let me share with you a scene that I still treasure. It is one of the final scenes of the movie. The events of Egypt and their escape happened a long time ago. Moses is an old and fragile man by now. He is travelling in a carriage where the box with the Ten Commandments is kept too. In the scene we find Moses looking through an opening in the carriage and around him there is a huge crowd of people walking. As his eyes examine that stream of Israelites in the desert, still walking to the Promised Land, he discovers among those people the God who appeared to him, the God who sent him to free his people from the slavery in Egypt, the God who gave him the Ten Commandments and the God who performed so many miracles. When the old man Moses sees God he smiles and returns to the carriage. Nothing has changed God is still with them.
My Dear Friends when Jesus described himself as the Good Shepherd he had given a hint to the people listening to him. Do you know what the hint was? “I am your God. I am still in your midst.” This Sunday as we begin the week of prayer for new vocations to the priesthood and the religious life I would like to say to the young people: If the image of Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd speaks to you in a personal way maybe it is because the Lord Jesus is calling you to resemble him in the midst of God’s people of our own time. Don’t be afraid, but listen to his voice in your soul. What may look like a difficult and challenging path to choose can become your path with Christ where you discover the truth of his words: “Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” The Gospel passage for this Mass is not a long passage and in that relatively short reading we heard Jesus speaking five times about “laying down his life for his sheep.” If Jesus kept repeating that so many times it means that what he was saying was of extreme importance. Laying down one’s life for his friends is of extreme importance indeed. It includes shifting the focus point from myself, my own needs and dreams to the other person. It means discovering that serving others, making others happy is more important that being served or looking for the ways to make myself happy. As the Bible says: “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.”
Dear young Friends let me finish with the words of our Oblate Cardinal Francis George who died a few days ago after a life time struggle with his disability caused by polio he contracted as a young boy and cancer. He could find many reasons to complain but he never did. In fact when he was appointed as Archbishop of Chicago, which is one of the biggest catholic dioceses in the world, he held a meeting with the priests of Chicago and he said to them: “Never feel sorry for yourself.” Everyone could tell that it came from the gut. He knew the happiness of laying down his life for others, happiness of forgetting himself in order to make others happy by drawing them to Jesus. Do you reckon it speaks something to you? So don’t be afraid. Follow it up.
My Dear Friends when Jesus described himself as the Good Shepherd he had given a hint to the people listening to him. Do you know what the hint was? “I am your God. I am still in your midst.” This Sunday as we begin the week of prayer for new vocations to the priesthood and the religious life I would like to say to the young people: If the image of Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd speaks to you in a personal way maybe it is because the Lord Jesus is calling you to resemble him in the midst of God’s people of our own time. Don’t be afraid, but listen to his voice in your soul. What may look like a difficult and challenging path to choose can become your path with Christ where you discover the truth of his words: “Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” The Gospel passage for this Mass is not a long passage and in that relatively short reading we heard Jesus speaking five times about “laying down his life for his sheep.” If Jesus kept repeating that so many times it means that what he was saying was of extreme importance. Laying down one’s life for his friends is of extreme importance indeed. It includes shifting the focus point from myself, my own needs and dreams to the other person. It means discovering that serving others, making others happy is more important that being served or looking for the ways to make myself happy. As the Bible says: “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.”
Dear young Friends let me finish with the words of our Oblate Cardinal Francis George who died a few days ago after a life time struggle with his disability caused by polio he contracted as a young boy and cancer. He could find many reasons to complain but he never did. In fact when he was appointed as Archbishop of Chicago, which is one of the biggest catholic dioceses in the world, he held a meeting with the priests of Chicago and he said to them: “Never feel sorry for yourself.” Everyone could tell that it came from the gut. He knew the happiness of laying down his life for others, happiness of forgetting himself in order to make others happy by drawing them to Jesus. Do you reckon it speaks something to you? So don’t be afraid. Follow it up.
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