The Good Shepherd | Bandera

The Good Shepherd

Fr. Dan De Los Angeles |April 22,2018
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The Good Shepherd

Fr. Dan De Los Angeles - April 22, 2018 - 12:10 AM

Sunday, 22 April 2018 4th Sunday of Easter 1st Reading: Acts 4:8-12 2nd Reading: 1 John 3:1-2 Gospel: John 10:11-18

Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Not so the hired hand or any other person who is not the shepherd and to whom the sheep do not belong. They abandon the sheep as soon as they see the wolf coming; then the wolf snatches and scatters the sheep. This is because the hired hand works for pay and cares nothing for the sheep.

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father. Because of this I give my life for my sheep.

“I have other sheep that are not of this fold. These I have to lead as well, and they shall listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock since there is one Shepherd.

“The Father loves me because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down freely. It is mine to lay down and to take up again: this mission I received from my Father.”

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)

In its Sept. 15, 2003 issue, the Philippine Daily Inquirer published the following news item:
“Sydney – Australia has offered to give away 57,000 live sheep to an unnamed country in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia rejected the shipment on health grounds… Saudi Arabia refused to take the sheep last month after veterinarians found 6 % of the sheep were suffering from the disease scabby mouth.”

Today’s Gospel reading uses the word “sheep” as a figure of speech in reference to followers of Christ. The news report above paints a poetic picture of the situation of Jesus’ sheep today. We are that sheep, and most of us are morally sick. As in the case of the sheep in the news item above, the healthy among us are in great danger of contamination. But unlike Saudi Arabia that rejected the whole shipment altogether even though only 6% of the shipment was sick, Jesus has not rejected any of us so far, not even those who are morally sick. He still commits himself to leaving the 99 to search for the lost one.
The problem is that some are making Jesus’ search complicated. Some make it hard for Jesus to find them and take them back to the fold. Reasons abound. Some don’t want to be taken back to the fold because they do not feel that a warm welcome awaits them from the group of 99. We commiserate with them because indeed some members of the 99 are quick to condemn, slow in forgiving, and indifferent in helping the lost ones go through the re-integration process. It is the feeling of being unwelcome that makes the lost sheep reluctant in returning to the fold.

Now, who is really the lost sheep? – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M

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