Good Shepherd 2023

Good Shepherd 2023

 

Jesus as the Good Shepherd is an image and reality of God that the world desperately needs to hear at this particular moment.

Why?  Because most people have a completely negative reaction to God as Father.  And why do they have a negative reaction to God as Father…because many people have been abandoned by their father and/or emotionally abused by their father and/or sexually abused by their father…and many people have been emotionally or even sexually abused by their priest who we also call “Father”

So the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd I believe is the image that we need to be broadcasting out to the world today as Catholics.  The idea that Jesus Christ is out looking for every single person, as an individual person, and is willing to put every person on his shoulders and bring that person back to the sheep fold is a beautiful reality of the Gospel message.

 

We heard again at Mass today Psalm 23…which is most people’s favorite Psalm…why…because it talks about God being the Shepherd… “The Lord is my shepherd…there is nothing I shall want…He leads me besides restful waters…he has prepared a banquet for me!” 

 

And what is the banquet that the Good Shepherd has prepared for us?  It is most especially Himself, present under the appearances of bread and wine…the Good Shepherd feeds us with Himself, turning us into Himself over time.

 

May we go out and preach Jesus the Good Shepherd, and witness to the joy that we have experienced in letting Jesus the Good Shepherd carry us on His shoulders back to the Catholic Church!