Knowing the Good Shepherd
Homily for the 4th Sunday of Easter (Year B)
At the end of every school year I like to invite students to my house for a cookout. My students enjoy spending time with my family and also seeing the livestock that we keep. We have a donkey and some chickens, and a small flock of sheep in the pasture behind my house. They are a rare breed of primitive sheep, meaning they don’t look like the large, white, fluffy sheep most people think of. They are smaller and dark in color. And they are rather skittish and wary of people they don’t know.
I remember one year I was cooking at the grill and I saw a group of students hanging out by the pasture gate, admiring the animals. The donkey and the chickens were just doing their thing, but all the sheep were huddled in the far corner of the pasture, eyeing the students suspiciously. Later that afternoon I walked out to the pasture with just one student who wanted to see our new lambs. This time, instead of keeping their distance, the sheep all lined up and walked toward me. Why the different reaction? The answer is simple: my sheep know me. They know I am the one who cares for them. In other words, they trust me, and because of that, they follow me. Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me” (Jn 10:14). As members of his flock, we are to trust and follow our shepherd.
So the question today for us is, do I trust Jesus enough to follow him as my shepherd? Or am I following someone else? There are many other voices out there calling for our loyalty besides that of Christ the Good Shepherd. There are plenty of false gods left for us to worship. We worship power. We worship money. We worship sex. We worship pleasure. We worship comfort. Most of all, our temptation today I think is to worship ourselves. So many voices in the world today tempt us with the idea that we can create our own reality, our own truth, our own identity; in other words, we can be our own god.
I blame de Carte. He’s the one who said cogito ergo sum, “I think therefore I am.” Philosophy before his day began with the assumption that we exist within a pre-existing reality upon which we are dependent. De Carte flipped this on its head. The foundation for his philosophy was the individual mind: “I think.” Taken to its extreme, this leads to the belief that reality is whatever I think it is and we are masters of our own destiny. This self-worship is just as much an idolatry as worship of Ba’al or Moloch.
We should honestly ask ourselves, what is the principal thing that is giving direction to my life? Whatever that is, that is your shepherd. That is your god. And if it is anything other than God our Creator, who has revealed himself to us in Christ Jesus the Good Shepherd, you have to wonder where is that false shepherd leading you? And is that really where you want to go?
The fact is that all of our lives are heading in the same direction — to the grave. We will all one day end up in that dark valley of the shadow of death. That’s a very morbid thought, unless we are following a shepherd who can lead us through that valley and out the other side.
The truth is, as St. Peter reminds us in today’s first reading, that “there is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved” (Acts 4:12). Other things in this world may offer us power or pleasure or fame or comfort or wealth or any number of other good things. Other things in this world may offer us a sense of self-righteousness or accomplishment or recognition. But only Jesus can offer us life. Only Jesus can offer us forgiveness and mercy. Only Jesus can lead us to perfection and holiness. Only our Creator knows our true worth and potential, and only our Redeemer can get us there.
If you want to know where our Good Shepherd would lead us, listen to these words from the Apostle John: “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn 3:2). What a grace that is; what a grace that will be, to be so transformed by the love of God in Christ that we can behold God face-to-face. This is what our Good Shepherd has prepared for us. This is the green pasture he leads us to.
Jesus speaks in the gospel today about laying down his life for his sheep. Now I have sheep, and I have children. If I saw one of my children standing in the road about to be hit by a car, I would jump in front of that car to save my child without hesitation, not even thinking about the risk to my own life. On the other hand, if I saw one of my sheep in the road about to be hit by a car, we’re having roast lamb that evening.
When Jesus describes himself as the Good Shepherd who knows his sheep, that’s just a metaphor. A metaphor for what? Jesus tells us: “Just as the Father knows me” (Jn 10:15). How does the Father know Jesus? He knows him as his beloved Son. And this is the grace Christ bestows upon us; that by our union with him, we might become beloved sons and daughters of the Father. “Beloved, see what love the Father has bestowed upon us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are” (1 Jn 3:1). Yet so we are. This is the dignity bestowed upon us in baptism. We are not God’s livestock. We are his children. We ought to act like it.
So do not run after these other gods. Do not follow these other shepherds. There is only one Good Shepherd who has true love and concern for his flock. He will lead us where we need to go. We simply need to learn to recognize his voice and then trust him enough to follow where he leads.
