When I look back on my own childhood. I see that I often took my parents' love for granted. I figured they were supposed to let me - and they did! As any child might, I didn't like everything my parents told me to do. And even less, I didn't like many of the things they told me I shouldn't or couldn't do. But even then, at some place deep inside, I believed, I trusted I knew that they loved me.
But I didn't realize, as a child, was how much they loved him.
I can see now that they often gladly went without - so that I and my siblings could have what we needed and wanted. I can see now how they spent their lives for me. I know now that my mother and father would have, without a moment's hesitation, put themselves between me and harm's way - without a thought for their own safety or welfare.
One of the reasons I see so much love in my own past is that I see it now - in the lives of families around me - and I recognize that love as the kind and depth of love I knew as a child.
(Unfortunately, sadly, some children aren't loved like this. And sometimes I see that, too. And I pray that others in their lives (besides their parents) will love them as unconditionally as good parents love their sons and daughters.)
But this no strings attached, self-sacrificing love parents give - is the kind of love Jesus has for each of us. And of course, Jesus’ love for us comes with no strings attached. His love never takes a break, never falters, never fails, never ends. In the total surrender of his own life, Jesus put himself between us and harm's way when he laid down his life for us on the Cross. And that's the message of the good shepherd in today's gospel.
But we need to know a little bit about shepherds and sheepfolds - if we're gonna get that message. (The Pharisees didn't get in the gospel. Let's hope that we can do better than the Pharisees!)
A sheepfold is a large enclosure - sometimes a stone wall, sometimes made of bushes, planted to “hedge in” a large pen - where sheep are gathered to spend the night, protected from thieves who might come down and take the sheep away - or beasts of prey who might attack the sheep. Sheepfolds like this are still in use in the Middle East - and in the United Kingdom.
So, the shepherd leads the sheep into the fold at night - and out in the morning - through a simple opening in the wall or the hedge. But back in the day, in Jesus' time, there was no gate at the opening of the wall of the sheepfold. So once the sheep were safely gathered in at night, the shepherd would lie down on the ground, stretching his body across the opening so that the sheep could not stray out, and no thief or wolf could gain entrance, under the cover of darkness.
And he said,
"I am the gate for the sheep.
Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out
and find pasture."
The shepherd, in the fields with his flock, becomes the sheepfold's gate, providing safe haven for the sheep and protecting them from harm.
Jesus, the shepherd - who loves us as a father and mother love their child - Jesus is not only WILLING to lay down his life for those he loves and keeps - he has indeed DONE that. Jesus has done that.
Perhaps the reason I may have missed the depths of my parents' love for me was that they provided so well for me, protected me so securely, that I never saw or knew the harm that was around me, that might befall me.
Perhaps as a child, I failed to see how much I was loved because I didn't see how much I needed to be loved, how much I needed to be protected.
Sometimes, I'm like that with the Lord's love, too. I don't see - or I refuse to see - that evil, like a thief, waits to rob me, even now, of what innocence I can still claim. Of what honesty and purity are still mine. Of the faithfulness and sincerity that have shaped and continue to shape the person I am.
I very much need the Lord's protective love - whether I recognize the dangers around me or not. And the less aware I am of my need for God's love - the more vulnerable am to what might harm me.
• Ours is not a culture in which the individual takes kindly or easily to being shepherded.
• We resist being told what to do, where we can or cannot go.
• Bumper stickers tell us to question authority.
• We like to be known as rugged individuals who can take care of ourselves.
But when we disdain what we dismiss as “herd mentality,” we might run the risk of separating ourselves from the flock, tended by Jesus, whom we celebrate today as our shepherd, our shep-HERD.
Perhaps some, or even all of that, explains why, in the last month or so, so many have criticized our shepherd, Pope Leo. Some seem surprised - taken aback - that Leo speaks and acts like – Jesus! That as pope, he stands as a shepherd whose heart's desire is to care for, to shelter, guide and guard the flock entrusted to his care.
Should we be surprised that Pope Leo comes at life from the perspective of the gospel? Actually carrying in his hand a shepherd's crook, a shepherd's staff? He walks around with that. We miss that.
Should we be surprised when Leo, like a wise shepherd, addresses the moral issues of right and wrong, life and death, war, and peace, freedom and justice?
That he critiques those structures and policies that threaten creation and humanity… that endanger the fold and the flock, entrusted to his care.
Should we be surprised when he speaks with a simple shepherd's wisdom -a wisdom that counters the folly of human pride?
Should we be surprised that Leo calls us to live by a measure of love, whose sign is the Cross of Jesus who laid down his life for his flock.
Our sanctuary here is like a sheepfold. And right now, a lot of the sheep have gathered here for prayer.
But the shepherd was not at the gate, not at the front door, he was not at the side door. Rather, our shepherd is right in the middle: his image on the cross, and his voice, the one we hear when he calls us, in the words of scripture.
Here at the altar, once again, Jesus lays down his life for us: now - in the prayer and sacrifice of this table, where we find our pasture, our sheepfold – where we are nourished by the life of our Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd loves you -and me - Loves all of us, his flock.
The Lord is our shepherd, and yes: we all need constant supervision!
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