A REFLECTION FOR GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY
On
this Second Sunday after Easter, we may permit ourselves to relax a little and
know that we sheep are safe under the guidance and protection of a good
shepherd. So long as we place ourselves
at his feet, follow him wherever he goes and do what he tells us, we have everything
we need and nothing to fear. “The Lord
is my Shepherd, I shall not want… Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me” (Psalm 22).
And
yet, there is danger in that valley. If
our Good Shepherd is with us, we don’t need to fear these perils that surround
us, but as soon as we leave his side, as soon as we reject his loving care by
sinning against him, we no longer have the comfort of knowing that his rod and
staff will keep us safe. We are exposed
to the elements—to the world with its enticements, to the devil and his works, and
to our own fallen nature with its inordinate appetite for pleasing ourselves.
Even
though our Good Shepherd will come after us when we go astray, we must never
presume that we will be found. Not
because our Lord doesn’t know where we are, but because, alas, some of us
prefer to remain in that world of freedom outside the fold. Outside these confines, we don’t feel the
need to obey the commands of the shepherd, but simply graze ourselves sick on
the bad grass of false doctrine and the rotten morals that grow there.
Like
the grass that some people like to smoke, this wild grass on the other side of
the fence is addictive. The more we
munch on it, the longer we want to stay there and enjoy ourselves. After all, who wants to listen to “Thou shalt
not do this or that or the other” when we can do whatever we want? The Good Shepherd will not tear us away from
our enjoyment of sin, he will not drag us by the fleece back into the fold. He gave us free will, and that very freedom he
gave us prevents him from forcing us to do anything against our will. But we should know better.
The
Good Shepherd never walks away from us.
He is always there to pick us up and carry us on his shoulders back to
the safety of the fold. All we have to
do is turn to him for help. That’s all
he’s waiting for, an acknowledgment of guilt, a tear or two or repentance, a
renewal of our determination to seek heaven.
If we’re afraid of losing our soul, or even just afraid of what’s going
on in the world around us, we should look with our eyes of faith at the graces which
the Good Shepherd pours upon us like the dew of the morning. Let us recognize in those graces the call from
our Good Shepherd to turn our lives around and follow him back within the fold
of mercy.
No comments:
Post a Comment