Fr Christopher Dillon OSB
A shepherd in Palestine or anywhere in the Middle East manages his sheep very differently from what you might expect of a shepherd in this country. We think of shepherds as driving their sheep, but the Palestinian leads his. He walks ahead of them to guide them to safety and good grazing, keeping an eye out for dogs and wolves and ready to take them on, should they attack. That is the point of the image which Jesus uses of the Good Shepherd. He sees his task as being out there ahead of us, to keep us safe. And not only that; he says, “I lay down my life for my sheep”.
All three readings today talk about God saving us. St Peter in the first reading says of Jesus’ name, “Of all the names in the world given to people, this is the only one by which we can be saved.” St John puts it more mysteriously in the Second Reading, when he says, “all we know is that when the future is revealed, we shall be like him”, that is to say, we shall be like God.
“And what”, you might ask, “do we need to be saved from?” Well, look around you: climate change, wars in Ukraine and Israel, migrants fleeing catastrophes of one kind or another, threats to democracy and sane government, social problems ranging from housing to health services, to say nothing of famine and drought around the world, the mental stress of addiction and loneliness.
There is so much from which people, including us here, need to be saved, to be rescued. And these readings represent the voice of God saying to us, “I love you. You are my children. I will not fail you. I will lay down my life for you.” The Easter story tells us that God, in Jesus Christ, has done just that; he has laid down his life for us, has laid down his life for us and taken it up again. He has taken it up again in such a way that we too can rise to new life after our own death. That is the saving, the rescue that he is speaking about. He is inviting us to put our trust and our hope in his love for us.
That is what our Christian faith is about, believing in God’s love for us. When all else fails, as it will, his love for us is absolute and unconditional. The question for every one of us is, “Do you trust his love?” At the very least, like the father of the sick child whom he brought to Jesus for healing, we can say, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”