A PRESENCE THAT WALKS WITH US

First Reading: Acts 4:8-12
Second Reading: 1 Jn 3:1-2
Gospel: Jn 10:11-18

We are in the fourth Sunday of Easter. The Catholic Church invites us to commemorate this day as world day of prayer for the vocations to priesthood. The gospel for this Sunday also given in line with the vocation to priesthood. Our God is a God who accompanies, a God who walks with us. He is not a God who leaves us to be ourselves after creation. His presence is always with us. This is seen in entire biblical narrative. In the first place, our God was accompanying our first parents, then the patriarchs, then people of Israel as a whole through mediators such as Moses, Judges, Kings and Priests. His presence with Israelites through the Ark of the Covenant and later on mount Zion also stresses the unique character of our God as an accompanier. This character is closely blends with that of a shepherd, a person who walks with the sheep. In this way our God is shepherd who feeds His flock.

We need to place ourselves in Ezekiel 34 to understand the meaning of Good shepherd in today’s Gospel. In Ezekiel 34, God juxtaposes the characteristics of the bad and the good shepherd. The bad shepherds are pointed as then priests in Israelites who have fallen away from their duty of pasturing the sheep. Instead of nourishing the sheep, they have devoted to nourish themselves materially from the sheep. This infuriated God, the chief shepherd to prophesy that soon these evil shepherds would be uprooted from the face of the earth and establish Himself as a good shepherd for the whole flock. In Jesus this prophesy is getting fulfilled. Jesus presents Himself as a good shepherd.

Jesus is not a mere shepherd, rather a GOOD Shepherd. The word ‘good’ is very important to be noted here. What makes Jesus to be a ‘good’ shepherd is His sacrificial act. Good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. On the contrary, the hired shepherd whose focus is only on getting the salary [the welfare of oneself] runs away from the sheep during moments of danger. In Jn 15:13, Jesus says that the best expression of true friendship consists in giving one’s life. Jesus as a good shepherd is a friend of the sheep. He goes as far as possible to bring back the strayed sheep. We often use adjectives such as ‘nice, wonderful and so forth’ to express one’s contentment with various things or situations. In the same way we too use the word ‘good’ to express our complete satisfaction with the events or the things. It is right. When we use the word ‘good’, we are giving a higher appreciation to the event or a thing that we are addressing. When Jesus presents Himself as a ‘good’ shepherd, He is not using that word as an adjective to give higher value to His occupation as a shepherd. Jesus is using the word GOOD in a noun form, which expresses a virtue or a morality in higher degree. Our shepherd is ‘good’ not because He is pleasant and approachable rather He is GOOD because He stands for His Word. His deeds expresses the GOODNESS in His commitment to the job of Shepherding. The incarnation of God in Jesus and passion, death and resurrection of Jesus is not done for the benefit of God, rather for the benefit of us – the sheep. Our God is not a paid God [hired servant], He is neither a self-indulgent God. He is a GOOD Shepherd who is preoccupied with laying down His life for all His sheep. This pictures our God as accompanier who is present with us always and walks with us. His presence in the Word of God and the Eucharist is an accompanying presence. It is a presence that journeys with us at every moment. Today let us commit ourselves to this accompanying presence of the Lord, so that He may walk with us to guide our feet into the way of peace (Lk 1:79).  

On this world day of prayer for vocations to priesthood we should pray to the Lord of the harvest (Lk 10:2) that He may send Good shepherds to the Catholic Church who would lay down their lives for the salvation of the sheep. May the existing shepherds imbibe the qualities of the Good shepherd to bring union and synodality in the Church.  


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