Monday in the Fourth Week of Easter, April 26, 2021

John 10:1-10

Jesus said:“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” Although Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to tell them. So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” 

“Although Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to tell them.”  It is no wonder that the people had a hard time understanding the Lord’s meaning.  In a world of lies, propaganda, opaque myths, and duplicity, he was speaking to them simply, in easily understood terms.  Nothing complex blurred the teaching he presented.  No attempt was made on their money.  When the Lord announced, “I am the Good Shepherd”, he meant precisely that.  He does not, however, declare that they, his audience, were his sheep.  The Lord Jesus does not say, I am your Shepherd, you are my sheep.  The fact that he did not appeal to them to be his sheep, his followers, perhaps baffled them as well.  What sort of Messiah was this who did not recruit for his army?  He left it entirely up to them if they would be his sheep.

 “The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”  Now, the Shepherd here is driving his sheep out of the enclosure where they had spent the night.  This is as the Lord driving us out of this world of darkness, calling us by name, into a world of light, pasture, and fresh water.  How does he know our names? Because he gives them to us and calls us by them time after time until we recognize them.  The Lord names us at our baptism through the mouth of the priest.  “But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”  Even if a stranger should learn our name and call it, we would not recognize the caller and ignore him.  Through long experience and grace, we know that the voice of the stranger is one that leads to darkness and death.  It would not even occur to the faithful, catechized Catholic to join the religion of a stranger.

“I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”. The Lord Jesus is not only the Gatekeeper; he is also the Gate, the one through whom we have salvation.  He is our Teacher and our Savior, too.  He ratified this, saying, “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”  The Lord’s abundance: the wine at the Wedding of Cana; the multiplication of the bread and fish; the catch of fish directed by the Lord after the Resurrection, so heavy that it tore the nets.  What does this “abundant life” actually look like?  If we follow him faithfully, he will lead us into it.