The Good Shepherd

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. ... I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And there are other sheep I have that are not of this fold, and I must lead these too. They too will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:11, 14-16).

“When he saw the crowds, he felt sorry for them, because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36).

One of the most beautiful images that the Church has promoted of Our Lord is that of the Good Shepherd carrying the little lamb or carrying the little sheep. We're told that the Good Shepherd knows each one of the sheep by their name (John 10:2).

We're told, “When you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word spoken behind you: ‘This is the way, walk in it’” (Isa. 30:21).

One of the greatest gifts that God can give us in this life is a clearer view of the road that leads to Him and the opportunity to rely on someone who will help us to recover from our errors and wrong turnings, so that we can get back once more onto the right track.

St. Paul, in his writings, on one occasion says, “You run very well but outside the course” (cf. Gal. 5:7).

Many times in the course of their history, the Chosen People lost their bearings. They strayed from the right path. They fell into great confusion and dismay, because they had no true guides.

That's how God finds His people: like sheep without a shepherd. “When he saw the crowds, he felt sorry for them, because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.” Their guides had behaved more like wolves than like true shepherds of the flock.

Throughout the long waiting of the Old Testament, the prophets had proclaimed, with centuries still to go, the imminent arrival of the Good Shepherd, the Messiah, who would lead His flock with loving care. He would be the “one shepherd” (Ezek. 34:23) who would seek the lost lamb that had gone astray, who would “bind up its wounds” (Ps. 147.3) and cure it of its sicknesses.

We can have great confidence in the Good Shepherd, Our loving heavenly Father, who reaches out to us in all sorts of ways, and who has called us His children. “Let the little children come unto me” (Matt. 9:14).

He invites us to trust, to trust in all the difficult moments of our life, when things seem to be going wrong, when there's a piece of bad news; maybe when there's a major tragedy, when hearts are breaking, when there doesn't seem to be any human reason, or supernatural reason, for why certain things have happened; the loss of a loved one at an early age.

But we know the Good Shepherd is looking after us. And even in those trying moments, we know that there's some other solution, or there's some other plan.

Maybe there's some great apostolic plan that God has in mind, behind these vicissitudes.

I met a priest once who told me that there were three priests in his family. I think there were eight or ten children. But he told me his mother had died when the eldest of the children was ten. He said it was a big blow. And of course, a huge blow.

His father never remarried, but an aunt came in to help take care of the children. But over time, that family was to produce three vocations.

We don't know the plans of God, or what the Good Shepherd is up to. With Him, the Good Shepherd, the sheep would be safe.

And in His name, they would have other good shepherds, whose mission, likewise, would be to care for and lead them: “‘I will set shepherds over them who will look after them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed. Neither shall they be missing,’ says the Lord” (Jer. 23:4).

Our Lord says, “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11). He says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

Part of our apostolate is in helping other people to discover the Good Shepherd or leading them to the Good Shepherd. As Philip said to Nathanael, “Come and see” (John 1:46).

Nathanael, as Bartholomew, never went away again. He became one of the twelve apostles. He found everything he was looking for.

The Good Shepherd has come into the world to gather God's flock together so that they can find peace in His Sacred Heart.

They can mend their broken hearts. They can find love there because the Holy Spirit is there.

“For,” as St. Peter says, “you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls” (1 Pet. 2:25).

The Good Shepherd comes to return the lost sheep to its flock (Luke 15:3-7) to guide it (John 10:4), to defend it (Luke 12:32), to feed it (John 10:9), to judge it (Matt. 25:32), and to lead it finally to the eternal pastures, “irrigated by [the] springs of living water” (Rev. 7:17).

Some soldiers were fighting in a war, World War II, and one of the soldiers in that group of friends was killed in combat. His friends wanted to give him a dignified burial so that it would bring comfort to his grieving mother when the news was given to her.

They found a small cemetery next to a small church and knocked on the rectory door. The parish priest came out and the soldiers told him about their dead friend, and asked if he could pray over their friend's body, and if they could bury him in the church cemetery.

The parish priest asked if their soldier friend was Catholic. And they said, ‘No, he wasn't.’

So the priest gently explained that their friend could not be buried in that particular cemetery, but that there was a small wall on one side of the cemetery, and if they wanted, they could bury their friend outside that small wall. That was done.

When the war ended, that same group of friends was going home to their own country. They decided to return to the cemetery to pray at their comrade's grave one last time.

They went to the small wall outside the cemetery, but they couldn't find the grave. They walked around and around. But no grave could be found.

They knocked on the rectory door. The parish priest came out and the soldiers explained that they'd come to pray at their friend's grave one last time before flying home, but they couldn't find it.

The priest explained that after they had buried their friend and left, the priest got to thinking of their kindness in wanting to console the mother of their dead friend with a dignified prayer burial.

He began to examine his conscience and examine his decisions, and came to ask himself: If these people were so kind, so affectionate, so tender with their friend and with his mother, why then was he, the priest, so rigid?

The priest told them that he had moved the wall so that their friend was now on holy ground.

The Good Shepherd moves walls. He embraces the lost souls, holds them close to Him in His embrace. Christ is the Good Shepherd proclaimed by the prophets. In Him, to the letter, all the prophecies are accomplished.

He knows each one of His sheep, and calls it by its name (cf. John 10:3).

The Catechism at the Catholic Church says some very beautiful things about our name (Catechism, Points 2156-2159). Every person has a name. We're given a name at Baptism. Another name at Confirmation. Our names are very important, because the Good Shepherd knows each person by their name.

“God will call us by our name.” We're not given a number. It says the name of a person “represents their dignity” (Catechism, Point 2158).

That's why we try to remember people's names. It's good to call them, if at all possible, by their Christian name. Young children are very impressed when older people remember their names. It's as though they’re embracing them with a great dignity, affection, and love.

Sometimes it's more difficult to remember people's names when you get older, but write them down or try to remember them, as a very beautiful gesture, a reflection of the dignity owed to the person.

We will have that name for all eternity. Jesus knows us personally. He calls us, seeks us, heals us.

“If you, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him?” (Matt. 7:11).

There's no need for us to feel lost or to feel submerged in a huge mass of nameless humanity. Somebody who may feel alone, or neglected, or isolated, can always find their peace and their joy in the heart of the risen Christ.

To Him, each one of us is unique. We can say with perfect accuracy: “He loved me and gave himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20). He distinguishes my voice from many others.

It's said that a mother always knows the voice of her child. Maternity is one of the characteristics of Our Father God. No Christian really has the right to say that they're alone, because Christ is always with them. So is His Mother.

If he or she is lost in the byways of wrongdoing, the Good Shepherd is already out searching for them.

Only the perverse will of the sheep can bring to nothing the vigilance of the Shepherd—a plain refusal to return to the sheepfold. That and that alone.

Christ gives good shepherds to His Church. As well as applying to Himself the title of Good Shepherd, Christ also compares Himself to the door through which the sheep enter the fold, which is the Church.

“I am the door of the sheepfold,” He says. “I am the gate of the sheepfold. All who have come before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep took no notice of them. I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe. Such a one will go in and out and will find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd” (John 10:8-11).

“The Church is a sheepfold whose one and only door is Christ (John 10:1-10). It's also a flock, of which God Himself is said in prophecy to be the shepherd (Isa. 40:11), and whose sheep, though undoubtedly led by human shepherds, are nevertheless guided and fed continually by Christ Himself, the Good Shepherd and Prince of shepherds (John 10:11; 1 Pet. 5:4), who gave his life for his sheep (cf. John 10:11-15)” (Vatican II, Lumen gentium, Point 6, November 21, 1964).

He speaks to us through His shepherds. That's why we have to try and be attentive to the voice of the Holy Father, to his apostolic exhortations or encyclicals or pronouncements, or to the voice of our local bishop, or to the Conference of Bishops.

In the last seventeen years that I've been in Kenya, I've always been impressed by the pastoral letters of the Kenyan bishops. It's a great service. Over time, they've come to have enormous credibility, like all bishops have in their countries, because they speak the truth.

From speaking that truth over time comes their great influence. It’s a very good thing to make it our business to know the Pastoral Letters that come from our bishops.

Our Lord says, “My sheep listen to my voice” (John 10:27). Christ has ordained that there would be in His Church good shepherds, so that in His name they may watch over and lead His sheep.

It's one of the reasons why St. Josemaría wanted us always to pray every day for the local bishop, to love him, to ask God for him, to thank him, to treat him with respect and reverence, because the Holy Spirit speaks through him.

At the head of all these shepherds is Christ's Vicar on earth. He established Peter and his successors (John 21:15-17), to whom we owe a special veneration, love, and obedience.

Try and foster in your children a love and reverence for the Holy Father, so that they may know who the Pope is. Help them to try and see him on the television or someplace, so they have a sort of a particular relationship with him; that they don't grow up not having any idea of who the Pope of Rome is.

Together with the Pope, and in communion with him, are all the bishops to whom we pay similar homage as the successors of the apostles. It's a great role and important to us. It's a difficult role to play, a difficult mission that they have, and we must try and help them fulfill that mission.

Priests are good shepherds, especially in the administration of the sacrament of Penance in which all our wounds and illnesses are healed. We also hear the voice of the Good Shepherd speaking to us, because the priest is acting in the person of Christ.

“They remind us,” said St. John Paul II, “that their priestly ministry...is ordered, in a special way, to the great solicitude of the Good Shepherd, a solicitude for the salvation of all men..., that men ‘may have life and have it more abundantly’ (John 10:10), so that no one may perish (cf. John 17:12), but that they may have eternal life” (John Paul II, Letter to All Priests, Point 7, April 8, 1979).

Every Christian also should try and be a good shepherd to their fellow men, especially by means of fraternal connection, by means of good example, and prayer.

In particular, a mother and father of a family have a very special role to play in all of this, to be there for their children, to be available to them, to be able to give words of encouragement or consolation or peace in certain moments of trial or contradiction or misunderstanding or rejection. Very powerful moments.

We can consider that in one way or another, we are all to be the good shepherds of all the people that God has placed at our side. All those neighbors, friends, relatives—they're all there for a reason, and we have a duty to help them through example and prayer.

There was a father once who was bringing his children to a playground and he asked the man at the gate, “What were the charges?” It was a certain amount for adults, a certain amount for children, and children under the age of seven years of age were free.

“And what age are your children?” The father said, “Well, they're eight and nine.”

The man said, “You know, if you told me that they were seven or six, I wouldn't have known the difference.”

The father replied, “The children would have known the difference. They would have known that I was telling a lie, an untruth.”

Certain moments are served up to us by life to give witness to the truth to the people that have been entrusted to us to be formed. They may come like the thief in the night, but they may be very important moments, because our children see to what extent we're willing to live by the truth, to what extent that we don't allow any little lies in our life.

We are there to give them our good example to walk in the ways of holiness and to persevere in our correspondence to the gifts and indications of the Good Shepherd, who is leading us to the pastures of eternal life.

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Near restful waters, he leads me to revive my drooping spirit” (Ps. 23:1-2).

There was a teacher once in the class who loved to read that psalm. One day, she invited some children to see if they now—they'd heard it so many times—might be able to repeat the psalm. “The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.” Or even if they could repeat a verse.

She invited volunteers to come to the front of the class. One little four-year-old went up and began to recite, “The Lord is my shepherd, that is all that I want.” And she sat down.

Like little children, we try to learn these things as best we can.

The role of the good shepherd is a most demanding one, because sometimes to give that good example—in traffic, in a difficult moment, or an irritated moment—it can be very trying, and demanding, to say the right thing, to do the right thing. But maybe our passions are screaming at us to do the wrong thing.

Being that good shepherd can involve a lot of love and a great deal of patience.

Perhaps with older grown-up children, you may think they’re taking a left turn, and you'd love to give them a lecture. But you know deep down that a great good may come from just keeping our big mouths shut and relying more on supernatural means.

All this requires courage, ability, meekness, as well as, often, the quickness of mind, and a great sense of responsibility, to instill peace in a difficult interaction or conversation with friends or relatives, to smoothen things over.

The neglect of this mission can bring about serious harm to the people of God (Jer. 50:6-8). “The bad shepherd leads even his strongest sheep to their death” (St. Augustine, Sermon 46).

It's not difficult to be a bad shepherd. There may be many people around us, and we think they're not as good a shepherd as they might be.

“The good shepherd has to fulfill four conditions. First of all, he must have love. Charity is the very first virtue Our Lord demanded of Peter before entrusting to him the care of his flock” (St. Thomas of Villanueva, Sermon on the Gospel of the Good Shepherd).

“Simon, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” “Feed my lambs” (John 21:15).

“Secondly, the good shepherd must be watchful, so that he may be attentive to the needs of his flock,” to bring the sheep around us to our prayer, to count the sheep. What do the people around me really need? How can I be all things to all men in this particular situation? The different members of my family may need different words, different affection, different encouragement, different thinking, to lead them forward to the next stage of their human, spiritual, doctrinal, and apostolic development.

One of the words Our Lord says frequently in Scripture is the word “watch.” Be vigilant. Bring things to your prayer. Look out for telltale signs that something may be going wrong.

“Essential in the third place is doctrine,” right ideas, “the aim of which is to provide men with the food that will enable them to reach salvation” (ibid.).

One time in Singapore, shortly after the new Catechism of the Catholic Church had been published, which was essentially, and first and foremost, like all major documents of the Church, addressed to bishops, I saw the local archbishop going out to say Mass with the new Catechism under his arm.

He was going to preach a homily based on the new Catechism and wanted people to see it. It looked very well under his arm, because one of the main roles of bishops is to teach—to teach the truth, to be witnesses to the truth, to communicate doctrine.

Each one of us has a role in that as the good shepherd—to know our doctrine; and to grow in our formation, which never ends; to know how to explain the ideas, the truths that we have, so that, as St. Peter says, we can “give other people around us the reason for the hope that is in us” (cf. 1 Pet. 3:15).

Doctrine brings light, which brings life. Doctrine is reflected in the life that we lead. We give witness to the truths that are in us.

“Finally, the Good Shepherd requires holiness and integrity in life, which is the foundation of all these qualities” (ibid.).

That's why we need ongoing formation to grow in holiness, to learn how to lead integrity of life, so that we don't have a double life, so that we're not saying one thing and living by something else, so that we give that witness of authenticity, which is very attractive, which other people see.

It’s the duty of us all to plead persistently also that there will never be a lack of good shepherds in the Church. St. Josemaría, when he was alive, used to say that we have to pray very much for the next Pope. It leads us to pray very much for the next Bishop.

God wants us to be vigilant in that way, to prepare the way. We have to pray particularly for those whom God has made the shepherds of our own souls.

After receiving the sacrament of Penance, it can be a very good idea to repeat the penance you were given for the sanctity of the priest who heard your Confession. It's a concrete way each week to pray for priests.

We also encounter the good shepherd in spiritual direction. Each one of us needs a good shepherd to direct our soul because no one can be their own good shepherd or their own director. No one can map out their own course without a special help from God.

“My sheep listen to my voice.” We know that the Holy Spirit will speak to us through those specific persons that God has placed in our life to guide us.

If we try and guide ourselves, there can be a great lack of objectivity. We can have a great exaggerated love for our own selves, and laziness. All these can conspire to obscure our path to God, leading us to a certain spiritual stagnation, lukewarmness, and discouragement.

On the other hand, in the same way that a ship with a good pilot arrives safely in port, so also will the soul that has a good shepherd safely reach its destination even though it may have gone astray many times.

Everyone knows that a guide is needed in order to climb a mountain without difficulty. Anybody in any human, let alone supernatural, endeavor, needs some sort of a guide. Every team in the Premier League has a coach. Every successful athlete in the Olympics has a coach to whom they have to listen very carefully.

The same thing happens when it's a matter of a spiritual climb; and even more so if there are certain pitfalls that may be set there by the devil who dearly wants to bring us down.

We need spiritual direction so that at the end of our lives we'll not have to say what the Israelites said after wandering about the desert without direction or meaningful purpose: “For forty years, we went round and round the mountain” (cf. Num. 14:33-34, Deut. 2:1-3).

We have lived, they said, without rhyme or reason, without knowing where we were going, without our work or study bringing us any closer to God, without letting friendship or family, health or sickness, success or failure take us one step forward towards what is really important: holiness and salvation.

There are an awful lot of people in this world who don't know where they've come from, where they're going, what their life is all about.

John Paul II says it's one clear question that every human person must ask themselves frequently: Where have I come from? Where am I going? What is my life all about? (cf. John Paul II, Encyclical, Fides et Ratio, Point 1, September 14, 1988).

So that we won't be in a position of having to say one day that we too have lived in this way, pointlessly whiling away the time, absorbed in passing fancies, simply because we have no supernatural goal to aim at, we need a clear path to travel and a guide to lead us along that path.

It may be necessary to entrust the direction of our soul to someone else, for we all need a kindly push if we get discouraged or have setbacks on our road to God.

It's well known that every pope in history has had a confessor, a spiritual director, someone to whom he entrusts his soul. Every person on the planet needs such a person.

We all need that friendly voice that will say, ‘Come on! Don't give in! God's grace is available for you, to help you overcome every difficulty.’

Listen to these words inspired by the Holy Spirit: “For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls and does not have another to lift him up” (Eccles. 4:10).

With the help of our spiritual director, we regain our interior composure. We draw upon forces which we had thought were not there anymore. We continue on our way. It's never too late.

It's a special grace from God to be able to rely on such a person who is both a friend and confidant and who can help us so effectively in a matter of such great importance.

Choose your spiritual director carefully: a man of prayer, of holiness, of discretion, of prudence. And to that person, we can open our hearts confidently, with human and supernatural intent.

It's a great joy, very often, to be able to lay bare our most intimate thoughts and feelings, to direct them to God with the help of someone who understands us, who won't get shocked or scandalized when they hear the thoughts that can pass through the head of a human person, who won't call the police.

That person holds us in esteem, opens up to us new horizons, supports us, prays for us, understands us.

That person has a special grace from God to enable him to help us, to seek those special lights from the Holy Spirit, to see, What does this particular soul need in this particular moment? That person has the grace of state to help him fulfill his mission.

It’s important for us to go and find that person who can truly be a good shepherd for us, the one that God wants us to go to. If there's such a priest or layperson near you that God has somehow led you to, you can be sure that's the person God wants for you.

St. Luke tells us how the prodigal son felt the need to be rid of the burden that weighed so heavily on his soul. Judas also felt weighed down by the load of his betrayal.

The prodigal son went where he ought to have gone and found a peace that he could never have imagined. He regained his life. He was welcomed back into the family, into the house of his Father God (Luke 15:11-32).

Judas should have gone back to Jesus, who would have sheltered and comforted him in spite of his sin, just as he did with the repentant Peter. But instead, Judas went where he should not have gone: he went to those who were incapable of understanding, and, above all, who were unable to give him what he most needed. “‘What is that to us?’ they said to him. ‘See to it yourself’” (Matt. 27:3-4).

In spiritual direction, we encounter the Good Shepherd, who each week may just say a word, a phrase, a bit of encouragement, but often that's enough to help us to start over. He gives us the help we need to avoid getting lost and to get back on the right path if we have deviated from it in our progress toward Christ.

We know that Our Holy Mother Mary will always show us the safe path that will lead to her Son.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

EW