Amy and the Good Shepherd
The Good Shepherd
The familiar image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd in John’s Gospel comes from the prophet Ezekiel. God in Ezekiel’s words condemns the false shepherds of Israel who:
don’t tend the flock… don’t strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up the injured, bring back the strays or seek out the lost…instead…use force to rule them with injustice. (Ez 34: 3-4)
God alone is the Good Shepherd, the one who is known by the loving care of the most vulnerable among us, who puts the needs of others and the needs of the whole flock first, even to the point of laying down his life in the person of Jesus Christ for the whole world.
In last Sunday’s Gospel we heard Jesus say: Very truly I tell you anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit…Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. (Jn 10: 1, 7)
What do you make of the image of Jesus as gate? Is the gate a symbol of exclusion or inclusion?
You may have noticed that in many churches there is a gate or a fence, a rail, around the altar. There is at both STEEP campuses. I wonder what that symbolizes for you. Is it a barrier between the people and God? Or does it enclose a sacred space where all can enter and be assured of safety, being fed, and cared for? Or does it symbolize something else?
In this time of pandemic, we are living the painful reality of not being able to share the Eucharist. I wonder what that means to you. Is not sharing the Eucharist a barrier the institutional church puts between God and people, depriving people of comfort so desperately needed? Or is not sharing the Eucharist a sign of care of the most vulnerable among us, of putting their needs first? Or is it something else entirely?
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