My shepherd is the Lord

A message from Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., for the 4th Sunday of Easter and Good Shepherd Sunday.

A few weeks after his election as Pope, Francis famously told priests that they should be “shepherds with the smell of the sheep.”

April 21, 2024, is Good Shepherd Sunday as we continue to celebrate the Easter Season. The Lord Jesus often spoke about sheep and shepherds as images intended to make a point about the relationship between God and his people. Of course, in his day, sheep and shepherds were quite common and the symbolism was easy to understand. Less so today.

When we hear the Lord Jesus using that imagery in the Gospel, most of us need to use our imagination — not too many shepherds or sheep farms around, at least not that I see in our part of the world. And, yet the symbolism of the relationship between the shepherd and his/her sheep has endured through the centuries. One of the oldest drawings found in the catacombs in Rome is that of a shepherd holding a sheep. The image can still speak to us today.

In Chapter 10 of St. John’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus preaches, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me ... no one can take them out of the Father’s hand (John 10:27-28).”
That wouldn’t happen unless the shepherd loved and cared for the sheep. That wouldn’t happen unless the sheep trusted and depended on the shepherd. That relationship of love and trust is the point of Good Shepherd Sunday. That relationship of love and trust was Pope Francis’ point as well. There is a beautiful and profound point in the message of God’s Word to the Church on Good Shepherd Sunday. The Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd, loves his sheep and because of that love, it is easy to trust.

The Lord Jesus continues to shepherd us today in the Church through its pastors and priests who have been called to lead, to guide, to teach, to care about us. The word “pastor” means shepherd. And, although some shepherds in recent years have betrayed the sheep causing great pain and scandal, maybe even pushing our faith and trust to the breaking point, we need to remember the Lord Jesus’ words in St. John’s Gospel, “no one can take the sheep out of the Father’s hand.”

“We are his people, the sheep of his flock,” however we may smell. The Good Shepherd is also the Lamb of the Book of Revelation, the Lamb of God who gave his life blood for us. That is what a shepherd does and why he takes on “the smell of the sheep.” And he “will wipe away every tear” from our eyes.