Christ the Good Shepherd,
Tomb of Galla Placidia, near Ravenna, Italy, 5th c.

Readings
Acts 4:8-12
Psalm 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 29
1 John 3:1-2
John 10:11-18

Jesus, in today’s Gospel, says that He is the good shepherd the prophets had promised to Israel.

He is the shepherd-prince, the new David--who frees people from bondage to sin and gathers them into one flock, the Church, under a new covenant, made in His blood (see Ezekiel 34:10-13, 23-31).

His flock includes other sheep, He says, far more than the dispersed children of Israel (see Isaiah 56:8; John 11:52). And He gave His Church the mission of shepherding all peoples to the Father.

In today’s First Reading, we see the beginnings of that mission in the testimony of Peter, whom the Lord appointed shepherd of His Church (see John 21:15-17).

Peter tells Israel’s leaders that the Psalm we sing today is a prophecy of their rejection and crucifixion of Christ. He tells the “builders” of Israel’s temple, that God has made the stone they rejected the cornerstone of a new spiritual temple, the Church (see Mark 12:10-13; 1 Peter 2:4-7).

Through the ministry of the Church, the shepherd still speaks (see Luke 10:16),and forgives sins (see John 20:23), and makes His body and blood present, that all may know Him in the breaking of the bread (see Luke 24:35). It is a mission that will continue until all the world is one flock under the one shepherd.

In laying down His life and taking it up again, Jesus made it possible for us to know God as He did--as sons and daughters of the Father who loves us. As we hear in today’s Epistle, He calls us His children, as He called Israel His son when He led them out of Egypt and made His covenant with them (see Exodus 4:22-23; Revelation 21:7).

Today, let us listen for His voice as He speaks to us in the Scriptures, and vow again to be more faithful followers. And let us give thanks for the blessings He bestows from His altar.

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Saint Anthony of Padua (c.1195-1231)
from Sermons for Sundays and Feasts of the Saints

"I am the good shepherd." Christ has every right to say: "I am." For him nothing is either past or future; for him everything is in the present. This is what he says of himself in the book of Revelation: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning an the end, the one who is, who was and who is to come, the Almighty" (Rev 1,8). And in Exodus: "I am who am. This is what you shall tell the Israelites: 'I am sent me to you' (Ex 3,14).

"I am the good shepherd." The word "shepherd" comes from the word "to pasture." Christ pastures us each day on his body and blood in the sacrament of the altar. Jesse, David's father, said to Samuel: "My youngest son is pasturing the sheep" (1Sam 16,11). Our very own David, lowly and humble like a good shepherd, pastures his sheep too...

We also read in Isaiah: "Like a shepherd he feeds his flock, in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom and leading the ewes with care" (Is 40,11)... And indeed, when the good shepherd leads his flock out to pasture, or when he brings them back, gathers together all the little lambs that are unable as yet to walk; he takes them in his arms, carries them in his bosom.

He carries the mother ewes as well: those about to give birth or have just been delivered. So too does Jesus Christ: he feeds us every day on the Gospel teachings and sacraments of the Church. He gathers us in those arms that he stretched out on the cross "to gather into one the scattered children of God" (Jn 11,52). He has drawn us into the bosom of his mercies as a mother draws her child.