I am the Good Shepherd

In the Gospel Reading, Jesus says that his sheep follow him. Those who belong to him know his voice and so they are willing to follow him and let him lead the way. 

The most comforting of the Psalms, 23, begins with the line: “The Lord is my shepherd.”  It ends with this line: “Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life”.  Goodness and mercy, in the person of the good Shepherd, have to follow because the shepherd is heading out to seek the lost sheep.  The reason that the sheep is lost and astray is that it is leading the way, when, clearly, it is the shepherd who knows the way and needs to lead.

Here is the good news, then.  Whether a person is faithful or lost he will be surrounded by the love of the Good Shepherd.  Either the Shepherd will lead him or the Shepherd will follow after him to find him when he is astray.

In our sickness we need a savior, in our wanderings a guide, in our blindness someone to show us the light, in our thirst the fountain of living water which quenches forever the thirst of those who drink from it.  We dead people need life, we sheep need a shepherd, we children need a teacher, the whole world needs Jesus!

And so St. Patrick’s prayer is right: Christ before me, Christ behind me. And, either way, Christ with me.