Gospel & Reflection
Gospel & Reflection for the Fourth Sunday of Easter – Good Shepherd Sunday.
John 10:1-10
Jesus said:
‘I tell you most solemnly, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but gets in some other way is a thief and a brigand. The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock; the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out. When he has brought out his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice. They never follow a stranger but run away from him: they do not recognise the voice of strangers.’
Jesus told them this parable but they failed to understand what he meant by telling it to them.
So Jesus spoke to them again:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
I am the gate of the sheepfold.
All others who have come
are thieves and brigands;
but the sheep took no notice of them.
I am the gate.
Anyone who enters through me will be safe:
he will go freely in and out
and be sure of finding pasture.
The thief comes
only to steal and kill and destroy.
Reflection
In July of 1880, Vincent Van Gogh wrote a letter to his younger brother Theo. In that letter, he famously likening himself to a “bird in a cage” that feels a deep, irresistible urge to be useful and to create, yet is trapped by circumstance. Those circumstances for Van Gogh were the fact that he was a man wandering in the dark. He had tried to be a clerk, a teacher, and even a Protestant Missionary. He was listening to the world’s expectations of him rather than the prompting of his own soul, and he was miserable. He coasted between ill-health and solitude, writing: “And now for as much as 5 years, perhaps, I don’t know exactly, I’ve been more or less without a position, wandering hither and thither……. a nobody”
But in 1882, his wandering ceases when he discovers that art is his talent, his calling, his destiny. He then wrote of a “great fire” in his soul, which “opened the prison” of his suffering, as he channelled everything through his drawings, showing the beauty of this “nobody” and that “fire in the soul”. He found a purpose for his life and for some time at least, no matter how difficult things became for him, his calling to be an artist never deserted him. Again, he wrote to his brother: “I think it is a great blessing when people find their work. I often feel that I am rich, not in money, but rich because I have found in my work something to which I can devote myself heart and soul, and which gives meaning and inspiration to my life.”
In our Gospel for this Good Shepherd Sunday, Jesus makes a clear distinction between the thief who comes to steal and destroy and the Shepherd whose voice is familiar and who offers life to the full. The abundant life offered isn’t about wealth in the material sense but as Van Gogh discovered, more about finding within all of life’s circumstances, our true calling and hope. Jesus says that He is the “gate” through which we discover this vocation.
He calls upon us then to listen to His voice and what He is saying to our souls and not what the world says or tries to offer. Christ is saying that we are cherished children of God, uniquely willed and loved; we are called by name and known intimately; we are worth dying for, even in our weaknesses. We are someone to God.
Compare this to the world, calling us to be useful and effective, but where if we are not or cease to be, we are abandoned and become anonymous, considered a nobody.
Friends, in God’s eyes we are all someone, and being a someone means living out our unique vocation, which is our specific contribution to God’s plan for the world. Some live that vocation, they realise their part in God’s plan through marriage and family life, others in the single life, and others again through Priesthood or religious life. No matter what path we take in life, through Baptism we are all made equal, we are made treasured members of God’s family, the Church; and we are united in our one true vocation – to know, love, and follow God.
We pray in a particular way for Vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life this weekend, but we must never forget that it is the vocation of every human being, from the Pope to the newest born child and all in between, to honour our creator and to worship Him. We are asked to listen to His voice, to recognise it, and to never waver from what He says to us, even as we face criticism, resentment and persecution in there many overt and covert ways.
At times, being Catholic, following our vocation in the diverse ways of life that we lead, is not always easy. We seem to be the butt of every joke; the seemingly only cause for every shame and scandal; the pointed-out killjoys of a world wishing for selfishness and self-indulgence. Yet, we know that there is much more to our faith and to the love of God than that.
There is an unparalleled beauty to God and His love for us. We have the joyous call, the beautiful vocation, to make God’s magnificence, His love and His truth known in all that we say and do. We are called to have a fire in our own soul, as Van Gogh had, that gives meaning and inspiration to our lives, and which reaches out and influences others also, in God’s name.
May we all manage to do that, in some way.
Fr. Richard
