Shepherding

(first published on Sunday, 25 April 2010 in the Faith section of Cebu Daily News)

Easter continues today, the season’s 22^nd day and fourth Sunday. This day is also called Good Shepherd Sunday or Vocation Sunday.

These names rightly describe the Fourth Sunday of Easter because the day’s reading from the gospel according to Saint John is about Jesus’ revelation of himself as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep, as the shepherd whose voice, calling out to the sheep, is recognized by them so that they follow him.

The gospel readings of the first three Sundays of Easter were about the risen Christ’s appearances to his disciples.

On Easter Sunday, Jesus, once crucified to death, was seen outside the empty tomb. On Divine Mercy Sunday, he appeared twice within a week inside the Upper Room though its doors were locked. On the Third Sunday of Easter, he appeared at daybreak on the shore of Lake Tiberias to cause for his disciples—who had been fishing in vain the whole night through—a miraculous catch of fish.

In the gospel of the Third Sunday of Easter, we heard Jesus asking and telling Saint Peter: Do you love me? Feed my lambs, tend my sheep. Jesus did so thrice to re-establish Peter—who denied the Lord thrice during his Passion—not only as a “Fisher of Men” but also as a “Shepherd of Souls.”

On this, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, the Church, gifted by the Holy Spirit with wisdom, brings us to the Christ who taught not only Peter but all of us what it means to be a genuine shepherd of souls.

“Jesus said: ‘The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life; they will never be lost and no one will ever steal them from me. The Father who gave them to me is greater than anyone, and no one can steal from the Father. The Father and I are one.’” (John 10:27-30)

Jesus is telling us that a shepherd owns his sheep. The shepherd is the one to whom the sheep feels that they belong. The shepherd is in a relationship of communion with his sheep. The shepherd speaks to the sheep with a tender truthfulness that encourages them to listen. He speaks with deep, caring knowledge about his sheep.

Since the shepherd provides the sheep a deep sense of belonging, speaks to them with the voice of truth and indicates to them that he knows all their lights and shadows and loves them anyway, the sheep are drawn to him and they follow him.

The sheep follow the shepherd because he gives them eternal life.

To give eternal life is to be in Christ, and—out of that being-in-Christ—to give our fellow men and women a sense of belonging, the sense that they are welcome in our lives. It is to speak to them words that bind up their wounded hearts. It is to be willing to know them deeply while giving them the assurance that we will handle our deep knowledge of them with extreme reverence and constant care.

To give eternal life as a shepherd in the footsteps of Christ is also to do our share in keeping the people entrusted to us from being lost or stolen, for they can be lost in the paths of worldliness, passing joys, meaningless feats, or self-centered existence.

To be a good shepherd like Jesus is to protect the people entrusted to us from robbers like temptation, sin, scandal, despair, doubt and hatred.

Finally, to be a good shepherd like Jesus is to run in search of the sheep when they are lost and to be patient in leading them back to God’s fold, knowing that our Father in heaven has made available for them (and for us) all the grace necessary to recognize and follow Christ, the original Good Shepherd of whom every Christian is an emissary.