The Good Shepherd

Today is “Good Shepherd Sunday” and also “World Day of Prayer for Vocations.”  We are called to pray for vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and religious life.  Very often when we do this, we think about a call that we imagine God is making to other people.  But of course, each one of us has a vocation and we are called to pray about our own vocations as well.

All the readings feature shepherds.  In Acts of the Apostles, on the day of Pentecost, Peter, the first Pope, is seen in his role as shepherd in leading people to baptism, repentance and forgiveness.  Then we hear the most famous of the 150 psalms.  “The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.”

In the second reading, from the first Letter of St Peter, we hear, “For you had were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”  And in the Gospel, Jesus says, “But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.”  But he also adds to this in a very interesting way.

We are used to the idea of Jesus being the Good Shepherd.  However, he also says, “I am the door of the sheep…If anyone enters by me, he will be saved…”  So, Our Lord is both a shepherd to us, but more than this, he is the very way that we enter into the life grace.  Our salvation is through him.

The idea of the Good Shepherd runs through the whole Bible.  A shepherd is a leader, nourisher, protector, healer and even someone who lays down his life for his sheep.  Sheep on the other hand carry notions of straying, being lost, mistakenly copying others and being weak and vulnerable.

As sheep, we are called to recognise the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow him and to pray about the call that he makes to each one of us and about the call that he makes to others.  

God bless, Fr Kevin.