Acts 4 : 7-12 ;

Psalm 118 (117) : 1,8-9,21-23,26,28-29 ;

I John 3 : 1-2 ;

John 10 : 11-18

 A poster for the company HMV (RCA Victor), showed a gramophone, with a huge 78 rpm record playing, and a dog  seated by it trying to place his ear attentively at the loudspeaker of the gramophone. And the caption just said’ “His Master’s Voice.” The company name HMV in fact meant, “His Master’s Voice.” Animals recognize their master’s voice. It reassures them, calms them, and they are ready to follow that voice. The dog was in fact waiting for his master at the gramophone. We humans, we recognize a person if the voice is familiar to us. Over the telephone, on the GPS, at the airport, or in a crowd of people, just on hearing the very first word, or the very first accent, usually we know immediately who is speaking. Like a DNA printout, or a thumb impression, the voice too is the signature of a person. As soon as we switch on the radio or television, we know by instinct if it is the voice of a president or of a famous journalist, and immediately we sit down comfortably. 

This is why Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life” (Jn 10: 27). At the shepherd’s call, the sheep gather around him. We all have seen pictures of sheep listening attentively to the shepherd with their eyes fixed on their master. In a relationship between two beings, “hearing” is of capital importance. “Hear, O Israel!” begins the Jewish confession of faith (Deut 6: 4).

Today’s gospel presents Jesus as the Good Shepherd (1). It portrays him as the threshold that opens on to the path of life. He offers green pastures to his sheep. He leads them besides still waters (Ps 22). To choose him is to knock at the right door and enjoy in abundance the life that he promises. 

Sheep need a shepherd, without whom they go hungry. They cannot nourish themselves adequately. They are unaware of the landscape, and do not know where to find fresh and rich pastures. They do not know where to find water. As a result, they will be either famished or undernourished.  Weak and defenceless, they need a shepherd to protect them against enemies. 

Let us transport ourselves by thought to the ancient Middle East: evening falls and the flocks of sheep and goats, scattered all over the hillocks, are gathered together at the call of the shepherd and brought to an enclosure surrounded by a dry-stone wall. The shepherd sleeps near the entrance, the predators and the thieves keep their distance and the animals rest peacefully (2). 

This is the reason why the people of Israel wished to have their own king. They wanted a chief to lead and protect them. The prophet Samuel was quite uneasy about it. Is not the God of Israel the pastor of his people? How come the Israelites seek to imitate the foreign nations by asking for a king? But God responded positively to the request of the people and Saul was chosen as king. But Saul failed to be a pastor according to God’s heart. And so, God chose David in his place.

David had already been a shepherd. He had had the experience of the wilderness. He knew with what vigilance the flocks must be looked after. He knew that the shepherd must be ready to risk his life in order to defend his sheep. He had acquired the capacity to be a good pastor. He asked God to spare the people from the menacing pest and instead make it fall upon himself. He also greatly sinned and his heart bled for having offended God. He showed his conversion by being a just and righteous ruler. Unfortunately, the kings who came after him were not his worthy successors. Their ways were not those of God’s. They went after idols, neglected their flocks and the flocks became easy prey to wild beasts.

Through his prophets, God became very critical of the kings who thought only of themselves and neglected their subjects. Prophet Ezekiel says that they drink the milk, eat the fat, clothe themselves with the wool and slaughter the fatlings, without caring for the sheep. Through Ezekiel God promises that he is going to take over the charge of his sheep: he will nurse them, rescue them, gather them into good pastures and give them rest (Ezek 34: 2-16). God also said that he was going to send a new pastor according to his heart who will shepherd his flock eternally.

In today’s gospel passage, the prophetic criticism is directed towards spiritual leaders who mislead the people (3). This particular part of John 10, that we read today, is formed of a series of contrasts: the good shepherd knows his sheep and his sheep know him, whereas the same sheep do not recognize the voice of those who climb over the wall (Jn 10 : 1-10). The good shepherd has come so that his sheep may have life in abundance, whereas those who came before him were only thieves and brigands who were there to steal and to kill (Jn 10: 7-10). The good shepherd gives his life for his sheep, whereas the hired servant runs away when danger comes (Jn 10: 11-16). From this context, we can understand the saying of Jesus, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me” (Jn 14: 6). 

But the overall context of today’s passage is one of polemics. We feel that the community to which the evangelist speaks is under threat from false shepherds. The main purpose of the author seems to be to muster the faithful around the unique and true pastor. Jesus expresses his wish to assemble into a single flock all those who have gone away: “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. There will be one flock, one shepherd” (Jn 10: 16; 11: 52).

“The Lord is my shepherd, nothing indeed shall I want” (Ps 23). Amen

(1) “The Good Shepherd” is literally “The handsome shepherd” in the Greek text. In the olden times beauty and bounty went together. A person who was kind was said to be a good-looking person. He became a norm in society. Thus one of the founding Pharaohs of ancient Egypt had a bump behind his head. But he was such a good person that the statues of the gods of Egypt had a bump in their heads for a long time to come. 

(2) In this passage Jesus is said to be the shepherd and the “door” at the same time. The shepherd is the door in the sense that he gives admittance to the sheepfold. The shepherds had the habit of sleeping at the entrance to the fold and thus served as the guardians of the sheepfold.

(3) To bring out even better the image of the true shepherd, the text goes on to contrast it with the figure of the “hired man”, the ‘mercenary’ (12-13). The mercenary works for money. At that time, the obligations of a hired man were: he had to fight off wolves, but was allowed to flee if he found himself up against a lion, a leopard, a snake, a bear or a thief. The hired man’s contract did not demand that he lay down his life for the sheep; he was allowed to run away, since the flock was not his, and he just worked for his salary.

Tiburtius Fernandez SMA, © Treasures of The Word, Homilies for Year B, St. Paul's, Bandra, Bombay, India, 2023, pp. 101-104.