EASTER IV SUNDAY: Acts 4:8-12; I Jn 3:1-2; Jn 10:11-18

Saint Maximilian Kolbe is the patron of families, drug addicts, prisoners, journalists and pro-life movement, and he is known for founding the Immaculata Movement and producing the Knight of the Immaculata magazine. During World War II, Saint Maximilian housed over 3000 Polish refugees at his monastery. He was eventually imprisoned and sent to Auschwitz, where he experienced constant beatings and hard labour. St. Maximilian died in the place of a man with young children, who was chosen by the guards for the firing squad. Kolbe is considered a good shepherd. He laid down his life for his sheep. Today is Good Shepherd Sunday, a good time to pray for the good shepherds as well as the bad ones; and a good time to realize that the Good Shepherd still walks with us.

The fourth Sunday of Easter is known as Good Shepherd Sunday. It is also the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Each year on this Sunday we reflect on the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, devotedly taking care of his flock.   A shepherd leads, feeds, nurtures, comforts, corrects, and protects his flock—responsibilities that belong to every church leader.  The earliest Christians had seen Jesus as the fulfillment of the ancient Jewish dream of a good shepherd.

In the Old Testament, the image of the Shepherd is often applied to God as well as to the leaders of the people.  The book of Exodus several times calls Yahweh a shepherd.  Likewise, the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel compare Yahweh’s care and protection of His people to that of a shepherd.   Psalm 23 is David’s famous picture of God as The Good Shepherd:  “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack.  In green pastures you let me graze; to safe waters you lead me.”

Just as the Palestinian shepherds knew each sheep of their flock by name, and the sheep knew their shepherd and his voice, so Jesus knows each one of us, our needs, our merits and our faults. The knowledge talked of here is not mere intellectual knowing but the knowledge that comes from love and leads to care and concern for the other. 

When the emperor Alexander the Great was crossing the Makran Desert on his way to Persia, his army ran out of water.  The soldiers were dying of thirst as they advanced under the burning sun.  A couple of Alexander's lieutenants managed to capture some water from a passing caravan. They brought some to him in a helmet.  He asked, "Is there enough for both me and my men?" "Only you, sir," they replied.  Alexander then lifted up the helmet as the soldiers watched.  Instead of drinking, he tipped it over and poured the water on the ground. The men let up a great shout of admiration.  They knew their general would not allow them to suffer anything he was unwilling to suffer himself. Jesus our good shepherd does not allow us to suffer anything that he himself did not go through. He says he is not a hireling who runs away in the face of danger leaving his sheep helpless. The radical difference between a Good Shepherd and a hireling is the former does his work because he wants to, the other does it because he has to; one has his heart in it, the other does not.

Jesus the good shepherd gives eternal life to his sheep by receiving us into his sheepfold through Baptism. Jesus strengthens our Faith by giving us the Holy Spirit in Confirmation.  He supplies food for our souls by the Holy Eucharist and by the Divine words of the holy Bible.  He makes our society holy by the Sacraments of Matrimony and the Priesthood.  

In the first part of chapter ten of John’s Gospel, Jesus adds two more roles to those of the good shepherd.  He goes in search of his stray lambs and heals his sick ones.  Jesus heals the wounds of our souls by the Sacrament of Reconciliation and strengthens us in illness and old age by the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. Jesus loves us as we are, with all our limitations, and he expects us to receive and return his love by keeping his word. 

The universal priesthood of all believers, the sharing of all the baptized in the priesthood of Christ, has received special emphasis since Vatican II. Those who are called to make a lifelong commitment to serve as ordained ministers share the ministerial priesthood of Jesus. On this World Day of Prayer for Vocations   we are asked to encourage and pray for our young men to respond to God’s call to serve His Church in the ministerial priesthood.

We become good shepherds by loving those entrusted to us, praying for them, spending our time and talents for their welfare, and guarding them from physical and spiritual dangers.  Parents must be especially careful of their duties as shepherds, becoming role models for their children by leading exemplary lives.

Let us pray for vocations to the priesthood, the diaconate and the consecrated life, religious and lay so that we may have more holy and Spirit-filled shepherds to lead, feed and protect the Catholic community, and more responsive, loving, cooperative sheep. And let’s also ask for the grace to be good shepherds to the flock that we have been entrusted with and not behave like a hireling.