Jesus responds to us: “I am the Good Shepherd”. If we understand in the world “Good”, the sense of “model” Then we will have a certain answer, because the Lord is the model of the ideal Shepherd.
The true shepherd is that one that gives his service for love and not for money. He is notinterested in only completing a contract, but in ensuring that the sheep have life and feel happy. His priority is the good of the flock that was entrusted to him. Therefore, he risks all in benefit of the sheep and is disposed to give his own life for them, because he loves them. In them, the sheep can trust, for they know that their caretaker does not defend his personal interests.
You, president, governor, prefect, politician, bishop, priest, deacon, consecrated, catechist, spouse, father, mother or you, how have you been the good shepherd to the sheep that were entrusted to you by God?
The Good Shepherd gives his life for us. This required of us the consciousness of our work and our duty. To give your life, Jesus was conscious of not losing anyone. Whomever gives himself for the service of the project of God, does not love life, but constructs it – and for the world – eternal and true life. His give does not end in brokenness, but in glorification. To whomever loves there is no death, for love generates true and definitive life.
The shepherd give life for his sheep. Jesus himself presents as the model of the ideal pastor, controversial as the high priests and the teachers of the law, denouncing the way as the people were treated by their leaders.
He, the man of the solidarity substitution, knows and gives His life that so many may have it. Therefore, The Father loves him and concedes to him the power to take and receive life. “No one takes my life, I give it myself; I have the power to give and I have the power to receive it again; this is the command that I received from my Father.” (John 10:18) This mission is marked by a personal and intimate relation with the sheep: he knows each one, it is the fruit of love giving. But at the same time, it is not limited by the borders of Israel: “I have also other sheep…” His Pastoral care destines him to bring life to all the peoples of the Earth.
Jesus realizes himself the action of the Father. In Him and through Him salvation arrives to the universe Luke recognized in the Acts of the Apostles: “In no one else is there salvation, for there does not exist under heaven another name give to the men by which they may be saved.”
In Jesus, we receive the great present from the Father: We are all considered sons of God. Conscious of this should be born all joy and hope. If the world in which we live reveals to us that it lost its sense of being gives to violence, corruption and rampant consumerism, we have in us the great commitment to bring the Good News through Christian attitudes that strive in the fight for seeing triumph, in this world, the love of the Good Shepherd for His Sheep.
Giving oneself to Jesus is not an accident, nor an inevitable fatality, but a free gesture of someone that love the Father, loves men and chooses love to the ultimate consequences. The gift of Jesus is a free gift, gratuitous and generous. His decision in offering, freely, his own life, manifests His love for the Father and for men.
Jesus is the door that introduces the human being in the life of God. Entering through this door, the sheep encounter themselves with the Father and with His project of saving all, including you, my brother and my sister.
The salvation is entering in your house through the parable of the Good Shepherd. Praise and thank God, becuase He is good, for in Jesus manifests Himself in the tenderness of the Father and wants to lead us.
See that Peter filled with the Holy Spirit, says: “It is through the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth – That one that you crucified and that resurrected from the dead – That his man is healed among you“, or maybe that our action can reveal Christ. Only through Him may we make our pastoral and social actions. Peter, in this passage of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, inspires us to be revealers of the Good Pastors. Therefore, we rejoice in the Lord doing good, even when we encounter opposition. This enriches our life, because the love of Jesus is salvation, it is Easter, it is Resurrection.
This Sunday, You and I may seek to be signs of the Good Shepherd that “gives his life for his sheep” and makes himself the shared Bread. That each baptized feels called and committed with His cause. That His action may be our action through participation, each Sunday in the Eucharistic memorial, and concretizing in the perfect search for justice and peace. That we may be able, truly, to be good shepherd and reveal the Reign of God n our manifestations of charity and mutual attention, especially for the poor and suffering, presenting the tenderness of the care of the Good Shepherd.
Father Bantu Mendonça
Fr. Bantu Mendonça Katchipwi Sayla is a priest for the Diocese of Tubarão, Angola