4th Sunday of Easter (Cycle B)

Acts 4:8-12                 1Jn 3:1-2                 Jn 10:11-18

A shepherd was tending his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a dust cloud approached at high speed, out of which emerged a shiny silver BMW. The driver, a young man in a well-dressed suit, poked his head out of the window and asked the shepherd, “Hey! If I can tell you how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?” The shepherd looked at the man, then glanced at his peacefully grazing flock and answered, “Sure.” The young man parked his car, plugged his microscopic cell phone into a laptop and briskly surfed to a GPS satellite navigation system on the internet and initiated a remote body-heat scan of the area. While the computer was occupied, he sent some e-mail via his BlackBerry and, after a few minutes, nodded solemnly at the responses. Finally, he printed a 150-page report on the little laser printer, turned to the shepherd, waving the sheaves of paper, and pronounced, “You have exactly 1,586 sheep.” “Impressive! One of my sheep is yours.” said the shepherd.

He watched the young man select an animal and how he bundled it into his car. Then the shepherd said: “If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my sheep?” Pleased to meet a fellow challenger, the young man replied “Yes.” “You are a consultant,” said the shepherd without hesitation. Being impressed, the young man said, “That's correct! How did you guess?” The shepherd replied “It was not a guess. You drove into my field uninvited. You asked me to pay you for information I already know, answered questions I have not asked, and you know nothing about my business. Now give me back my sheep.”

By the gestures of the young man, the shepherd assessed the profession of the young man. Still, generally speaking, a shepherd cannot be equaled to the informational knowledge of a professional or an expert. But the wisdom and experiential knowledge possessed by the ordinary shepherd is something unique and philanthropic in nature that speaks in volumes about the love and care, he has for his flock. The shepherd in the story was well aware that the young man being a consultant cannot give good care to the sheep which he gave as a prize for the challenge won by the young man. Therefore, he was particular to get his sheep back through his wisdom. A good shepherd would never entrust even single sheep of his flock into another’s care.

All of us love to be protected. All of us love to be under someone’s care and affection. This is an undeniable emotional need of every person. The imagery of the shepherd and the sheep, centrally brings this message of care and protection. There cannot be a better imagery to bring this message so sharp and touching. The significant point of this message is that the protection enjoyed by the sheep is at the risk and cost of the shepherd’s life. The shepherd is ready to face any risk in order to protect the sheep under his care. It manifests his genuine love towards his sheep. When Jesus expresses himself as the Good Shepherd, he tries to expose these characteristics in relation to each of us.

Let us have look at the characteristics of a shepherd who is good, in the light of today’s gospel. The following are the characteristics:

- A shepherd is one who loves his people genuinely and authentically without any pretension

- A shepherd is one who sacrifices for his peoples’ well-being even to the extent of giving his life
- A shepherd is one who will not run away when his life is endangered
- A shepherd is one who will face any reality for the sake of his flock
- A shepherd is one who knows his people individually and personally
- A shepherd is one who will relate with his people to the extent the people also knows the shepherd personally
- A shepherd is one who is not only concerned about his own flock but also the uncared that belongs to other flock
- A shepherd is one who is particular not to lose even single person from his flock
- A shepherd is one who sees to that the single lost is brought back into the herd
- A shepherd is one who protects each individual in the flock to the extent that no one snatches it away

So far, we have been reflecting only on who is a good shepherd. Jesus Christ not only presents the characteristics of a good shepherd, but also sharply denotes the character of the good sheep. Therefore, the question that comes to our mind is: Who is a good sheep? Jesus surprisingly points out only one characteristic of a good sheep.

A good sheep is one who listens and follows the voice of the shepherd and does not go by the voice of the stranger. The good sheep should have good acquaintance with the shepherd in order to always recognize the voice of the shepherd, otherwise it would be misled by a stranger’s voice. A personal rapport with the shepherd becomes inevitable here

There are two options of being misled. One, by mistakenly recognizing the stranger’s voice for the original shepherd. Secondly, by willingly being fascinated by the stranger’s voice and following him. In either option, the sheep is in a dangerous position. The first is a matter of unawareness but once awareness happens, it can be rectified. But the second is a matter of volition and voluntary willingness to be yielded to a new path. It is a matter of one’s discretion and decision. It is a matter of conviction and determination. The change of a determined mind is not so easy. Bringing back to earlier path, cannot happen suddenly but needs longer time. Sometimes, it would also result in vain. Rather the change of an unknowingly misled mind is easier to be brought back of the earlier path.

Today, the world is filled with so many teachings and philosophies. These are different voices of various shepherds. These voices promise various benefits like longer life, complete enjoyment, accumulation of wealth, highest fame and so on. But these cannot promise eternal life, but only the voice of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. The sad fact is that, the voice of Jesus is counted as one among many voices. To the world and others, the voice of Jesus may seem to be one among the many, but to us, that is the only voice to be followed. It is a matter of belief for all of us to rely only on it fully.

We are in the pathetic state of being confused by many voices calling us. Everything seems to convince us of various benefits. We need to have a proper discernment to rightly respond to our Good Shepherd, Christ’s voice alone. This is how we could prove ourselves to be the good sheep of the Good Shepherd. If our love for God is true, we would only hold to Christ’s voice. Let each of us take time to ponder over this question: Which voice I constantly heed to?