We like the idea of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, but...

we seldom like the idea of being sheep—people who blindly follow anyone or anything. However, that’s not what sheep and shepherds are like in real life. In cultures where sheep are still herded by individuals, a deep bond and trust exist between the shepherd and his flock. The sheep know and trust their shepherd so intimately that all he has to do is call them by name. And he knows each of his sheep so well that he has given them individual names! That’s the kind of relationship Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel…a deep bond of love that enables us to trust that Jesus is leading us on the path that leads to abundant life. He tells us it is through listening to him and his voice that we can truly find the green pasture and still water that we all desire to have.

But how are we to know and hear our shepherd’s voice? The only way we can hear him is by finding some quiet time away from all the noise of life so that we can concentrate on prayer. This doesn’t necessarily mean the formal reciting of words, but simply being in the presence of the One who loves us. We need to silence ourselves in order that we can begin to discern the small, still whisper in our hearts. It is only when we take that time that we are able to enter into the kind of relationship with God that gives us abundant life here, and in the next world to come.

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FIRST READING
Acts 2:14a, 36–41

Peter announces to his audience, “Let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” In that phrase LEADER TIPS: • We've provided reflectionsfor each reading on the following pages. Read these in advance; they'll give you additional insights for understanding and discussion. • Depending on when your group meets and how much time you have, you may want to read through each reading from the Prayer Journal together before beginning lectio divina. is fulfilled Jesus’s command that his gift of salvation be preached first in Jerusalem. Peter, as his vicar on earth, now takes up that concern and will extend it in what will be an ever-widening sphere of proclamation “throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Peter’s directness seems to work: he doesn’t mince words as to the complicity of his audience in the Crucifixion, yet they respond with contrition. Peter’s intrepidity in announcing both the fault and favor that Jesus’s death brings is a clear sign of God’s work. Peter had denied even an association with Jesus the night of Jesus’s arrest and trial. Now, here’s Peter crying out, welcoming such a connection between himself and Jesus, before the whole assembly of Israel. Only grace could do that! The same grace that’s at work in Peter seems to be at work through Peter, whose courageous proclamation of the Gospel draws thousands of souls into that grace.
 

This reading reminds us that the Resurrection can’t be a promise of life without Jesus’s passage through death. By virtue of our Baptism, we participate in the same dynamic spiritual process as Jesus. We pass, by grace, through death to life. “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.” Peter suggests an approach to suffering which is opposite to the first impulse in our nature.

We often want to tell ourselves that when we suffer, God doesn’t will our pain.We want to tell ourselves, and others, that suffering doesn’t matter so much in the long run. God didn’t will suffering and death; sin brought that into the world. Peter doesn’t say suffering is unimportant in comparison with the good that will come, but he says, “It was for this you have been called.” He reminds us that Jesus didn’t just suffer—he embraced suffering. Only love can transform the way we look at suffering, and Jesus is Love Incarnate. Jesus teaches us to embrace what we cannot change and that embrace transforms pain into the path to life.

The way of the Lord Jesus isn’t simply a path but a way to a place: the Church. He doesn’t say, “Live anywhere you want,” but rather, “Whoever enters through me will be saved.” The implication is that elsewhere one may not be saved. Sheep need protection. Jesus invites us to see ourselves in that role of utter dependence on him; he invites us to enter in and be kept safe by him, the Good Shepherd. He invites us to the humble realization that we’re like sheep who, without him, are subject to those who would “steal and slaughter and destroy.”

Those who don’t want to follow the Shepherd, who don’t like the sound of his voice when he tells us we’re like sheep, demonstrate by that very fact that they’re not his. Only those who recognize themselves in his description of his sheep have really heard his voice. Those who don’t hear his voice are likely to say something like, “I resent the implication that I’m no more than a sheep,” or “You people are nothing but sheep.” To which we sheep might respond, “Yes, ‘The sheep hear his voice as the shepherd calls his own... by name.’”

MEDITATION:

RESOLUTION:

Set aside some time this week and turn off your computer, your cell phone, and any other electronic devices. Go into a private place where you can meditate on what it means to have Jesus as your shepherd.