Everything survives in love! The image of Jesus the good shepherd is about his unconditional love, mercy that seeks to save all; it is not his will that anyone be lost but unify everything in his love. Life survives, flourishes and kept eternally in the love of the good shepherd. There are shepherds and Ranchers among you; you have a special relationship with each sheep or cow, you know each one; you are concerned about their well-being; you want to see them all healthy! Your sheep, cows know you care for them and love them! Humanity is the good shepherd’s flock and he seeks friendship and intimacy with all humans. To be born is to be loved and cherished by God and belong to Jesus the good shepherd, to know I am [each human being] wonderfully created. Then what happens to us on life’s journey? Unlike the sheep, we are endowed with reason and freewill. Often we ignore the shepherd’s voice or seem indifferent to his calling and walk away from him. We are easily mislead by the wolf in sheep clothes; the wolf can be godless ideologies, a culture without God, or our perception of life that has no worth beyond this world.
When the heart loses its light, connectedness to the good shepherd, it finds the voice of the good shepherd boring; humanity is then wounded, wounded by wrong choices in life and many live in fear, in loneliness, suffering from deep unease and anxiety, controlled and haunted by the past. Failing to listen to the voice of the good shepherd, our vision of life gets clouded. Poet John Donohue: ‘to the fearful eye, all is threatening; to the judgmental eye, everything is closed in frames; to the resentful eye everything is begrudged; to the indifferent eye, nothing calls or awakens; to the inferior eye, everyone else is greater, more beautiful, brilliant and gifted than you. To the loving eye everything is real’. Love becomes the light of the heart; good shepherd invites all to see the world through his love. Look at Jesus carrying the cross; the good shepherd carrying the wounded world on his shoulders, the wounds of everyone in the world, wounds of humanity. In the parables of the good Samaritan, lost sheep, prodigal son, we see the heart of the good shepherd that goes out to the vulnerable, weak, stray and lost, bringing them back to wholeness, health, back to sense of belonging, to a reconciled, loving relationship-our communion in the Eucharist.
Irish proverb: ‘the help of God is nearer than the door’; stop, listen, attend to the silent presence of God. Psalm 85:8: ‘let me hear what the Lord, God will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to those who turn to him in their heart’! Anywhere, anytime, we can open our inner ear to hear the voice of the good shepherd. Following the good shepherd means to direct life’s motion/journey to well-being and not to evil-being! Only we can make the choice to give ourselves to the safe embrace of the good shepherd in loving freedom. If we listen to the voice of the good shepherd and respond to his calling in love, his voice will echo in us for others to stop and listen; his love in us will radiate to others and draw them to the saving presence of the good shepherd. Everything survives in love!