When I was a child, my friends and I always loved the playground at Montrose Elementary, where we all went to school. We would climb trees, swing on the swings, play tag, do the monkey bars, slide down the slides. It was a great place to have fun. But one day that place didn’t seem so fun to me. I was fairly young, probably not more than 6 or 7 years old. We were playing at the playground on a chilly fall day after a recent rainfall. Somehow, my foot got stuck in the mud by the tire swing and I couldn’t pull it out. The mud was really sticky and the harder I tried to get loose, the more it seemed to suck my foot further in. Needless to say, I was pretty freaked out. My day of fun had turned into a crisis.
Thankfully, one of my friends had the presence of mind to go get my mom. I don’t remember exactly what my feelings were standing out there in the cold, but I imagine I was pretty worked up, shivering in the chilly weather with my foot stuck. It was a relief when my mom arrived. With her help, I was able to get my foot unstuck and go home with her to warm up. My favorite memory afterward is that Mom drew me a nice hot bath. That was the perfect thing.
Experiences like these remind our hearts of the love and care that we are made for. It is something built into each and every one of us. From our earliest days as babies, one of the first things we instinctively know how to do is reach for mommy or daddy. It is a blessing for everyone who grows up with the warmth of a loving parent. That day, all I needed was my mom’s embrace, her calming voice and the care that she knew best how to give me. At their best, our parents are images to us of the care of our Heavenly Father. There is nothing more important to God than caring for us all, protecting us and giving us exactly what we need in our moments of trial.
This is what Jesus says to each one of us in the Gospel today. In our weakness, too often we run away from God because we fear Him to be some kind of tyrant about to lash out at us because of our failures. But this couldn’t be farther from the truth. This faulty image of God is a lie from the pits of Hell, and Jesus came among us to make sure that we each know the care, compassion and love of our Heavenly Father.
Today Jesus speaks to the Pharisees using the image of a shepherd. He tells us that He is both the Good Shepherd and Gate for the sheep. All of us are called to have the trust that sheep have, not to follow just anyone, but to follow the voice of the shepherd, who knows and cares for us. I pray that we allow Jesus’ words to sink deeply into our hearts today: “A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” Who are the thieves in our lives? All those who draw our hearts away from the abundance that Jesus has in store for us.
The devil and all his fallen angels come to steal, slaughter and destroy. They put temptations into our mind: temptations toward doubt, unbelief, unforgiveness, unchastity and so many other life-destroying things. Let us never forget that these temptations will never, never, ever satisfy us if we act upon them. The devil is a liar and always has been. We also are robbed by the fallen world we live in. I don’t have to tell you that there are forces in our world which are against what we know to be true. We live in a world where even the most basic concepts of life, love and our identity as male and female in God’s image are under attack. Beyond these most obvious dangers, there are also many more subtle thieves in this fallen world, like consumerism, apathy, ladder-climbing, and sports worship. None of these bring our hearts abundance, but instead steal, destroy, and rob our hearts of Jesus’ abundance. Peter spoke of the “corrupt generation” that we need to be saved from. In every age, there are forces in the world that work against us, but the good news is that God’s grace is more powerful than this world. When Peter spoke the truth that day, three thousand were baptized! Still today, all over the world people are being baptized into the goodness of the life that Jesus offers!
Yet even after we have tasted the goodness of Jesus, we all still struggle. This is what the Church calls concupiscence–the tendency within each of us to be attracted to sin and wrongdoing even though we are trying to live for Christ. But all of those tugs on our hearts toward sin can never overpower us if we continually return to the Shepherd of our Hearts, Jesus Christ. He wants to shepherd us to lives of humble love and service to our families, friends and those in need. He can protect us from the world, the devil and our flesh which draw us away from our Heavenly Father.
When we find our hearts being beckoned by thieves, let us return to Scripture, where we are reminded of who our God is. When we listen to Psalm 23, which was our Responsorial today, we remember the truth: “The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.” When we allow ourselves to rest in the arms of Jesus, He will bring us through the struggles and trials of this life to our Heavenly Homeland with the Father. And along the way, Jesus will feed us, care for us, and even pick us up when we have fallen. This is who He is! Our shepherd, who gives us abundant new life day by day. As we hear from St. Peter’s first letter today: “For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.”
Through the prophet Isaiah, God reminds us: “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you. See, upon the palms of my hands I have engraved you.” We are engraved upon His hands! Have you ever held something in your hand so tightly that when you let go, you still see its outline there? This is how tightly we are held by the Trinity: we are engraved upon God’s hands.
So if we are stuck in the muck of the world, the flesh and the devil, let us turn to Jesus today and ask Him to rescue us, like my mom did when I was trapped all those years ago. I know that the more we turn to Him and allow the Good Shepherd to tend us with His loving care, He will send us out to others so that they can experience the care of the Shepherd and Guardian of their souls, too!
+ Heavenly Father, thank you so much for sending us Jesus to show us the goodness you have toward us. You care for us and want us to have abundant life in you. Jesus, thank you for being our shepherd and guardian. Help us to stay close to you when thieves threaten our joy. Holy Spirit, help us to be open to Jesus’ care and to show that same care to others so that through us they can come to know Jesus, the Good Shepherd. We ask this through Christ, our risen Lord. Amen. +