Word to the Wise
Monday, May 13, 2019 - 4th Week of Easter - Mon
[Acts 11:1-18 and John 10:1-10 or, in Year A, John 10:11-18,905]" 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, because they recognize his voice." [John]
When I was a lad about 11-12 years old, my parents sent me and my two younger brothers to summer camp on the Gulf Coast at Bay St. Louis, MS. The location was a boarding high school run by the Sacred Heart Brothers, called St. Stanislaus. The brothers had the campers, aged 6-13 divided into age groups, each of which wore a different colored t-shirt. But the way in which a group would be summoned to a particular activity for the time period was through a coach's whistle! Each group had a distinctive whistle call which we were taught as soon as we arrived. That made it possible to summon only one group from a larger number of boys running here and there! That memory comes back to me in thinking of Jesus' image of the shepherd and sheep. In a common corral, only a distinctive call will summon the right sheep!
The image of the shepherd and sheep is turned this way and that by Jesus. He is the shepherd, he is the gate, and he is the gate-keeper at different points. In today's portion of the image, the emphasis is on the gate and the call. "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."
When the relationship between sheep and shepherd is endangered by poor shepherding, all can be lost. The last few years have seen this relationship badly shaken. Efforts to restore that trust have been slow, but they are happening so that Jesus' image can be applied with greater effect. The chief shepherd expects the best and nothing less! AMEN