John 10:1-10

Acts 2:14a, 36-41

Psalm 23:1-3a, 3b 4, 5, 6

1 Peter 2:20b-25

John 10:1-10

Jesus said:

“Amen, amen, I say to you,

whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate

but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.

But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice,

as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has driven out all his own,

he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,

because they recognize his voice.

But they will not follow a stranger;

they will run away from him,

because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”

Although Jesus used this figure of speech,

the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them.

So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you,

I am the gate for the sheep.

All who came before me are thieves and robbers,

but the sheep did not listen to them.

I am the gate.

Whoever enters through me will be saved,

and will come in and go out and find pasture.

A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;

I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, divine Shepherd of my soul, I hear your Voice and am comforted. You will lead me and guide me along the right path. The noise of the world cannot fulfill the longing of my heart. In you alone, I will find rest.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Shepherd and Sheepgate: In the Gospel, we are asked to contemplate the image of Jesus as both a shepherd and a sheepgate. The image of the shepherd of the people of Israel recalls the idea of Israel’s king as the shepherd of his nation. David was a shepherd-king (see Psalm 78; Ezekiel 34:22-23). “When Jesus claims to be the Shepherd of Israel in this passage, he is claiming to be the fulfillment of the prophecy of Ezekiel, that a king from the line of David would return to rule Israel one day. But Ezekiel spoke not just of David as Shepherd over Israel, but also of God himself as their Shepherd: ‘I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest – oracle of the Lord God’ (Ezekiel 34:15)” (Bergsma, The Word of the Lord: Year A, 148). Jesus also compares himself to a sheep gate: “I am the gate for the sheep … Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.” Jesus envisions that he will grant us abundant life and that we will flourish under his care and in his pasture.

2. Cut to the Heart in the New Covenant: Peter’s sermon, in the First Reading, cuts his listeners to the heart. This is a sign that the Holy Spirit has convicted their consciences of sin and opened their hearts to believe Peter’s message. This refers back to Moses’ prophecy found in Deuteronomy that one day God would circumcise the heart of his people after bringing them back from exile (Deuteronomy 30:6). And this is what happened in Acts 2, “where Luke has just mentioned that Jerusalem was filled with Israelites from every place in the known world (2:5-11)” (Bergsma, The Word of the Lord: Year A, 142). Circumcision of the flesh was the sign of the Old Covenant. Circumcision of the heart is the sign of the New Covenant. And this circumcision is effected through the Sacrament of Baptism and the reception of the Holy Spirit. The New Covenant was initiated at the Last Supper and fully inaugurated with the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost.

3. Sacrificial Lamb and Suffering Shepherd: In the Second Reading, we read from the First Letter of Peter. The letter refers to Jesus as the “shepherd and guardian” (1 Peter 2:9) of our souls. “The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd was one of the most dearly beloved pictures of Jesus to the first Christians. Long before the crucifix became employed as a Christian symbol, we find catacomb art depicting Jesus as the Good Shepherd” (Bergsma, The Word of the Lord: Year A, 146). Peter does not promote an “easy Christianity.” He speaks about persecution as the normal state of the Christian life and draws from Isaiah 52-53 to make his point. Jesus is both the lamb who is slain and sacrificed and the shepherd who suffers for us in order to heal us. “Jesus is the paradoxical lamb and shepherd, who gathers back to himself the straying sheep. Since he has also been a ‘sheep’ he is sympathetic to our condition” (Bergsma, The Word of the Lord: Year A, 147).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, Good Shepherd sent by the Father, protect me from danger with your staff, bring me to the good pasture of the Eucharist, fill my soul with the water of the Spirit, and lead me through the valley of death to the gate of heaven.

Living the Word of God: How has the Lord God acted as a shepherd in my life? How am I called to imitate Jesus as the Good Shepherd today?