We call today Good Shepherd Sunday because we
read part of John 10 today. Our readings follow a three-year cycle,
and we read John 10 on the Fourth Sunday of Easter each year.
Although Jesus does not call himself the Good Shepherd in the
excerpt we read today, he does in his discourse that continues from
our Gospel today which is read on the Fourth Sunday of Easter next
year.
Farmers drive their cattle from behind, and in
the western world shepherds drive their flocks of sheep going behind
them or with trained dogs behind them, but in the Middle Eastern
world and in the past, the shepherd went ahead of his sheep. In
family run flocks, each sheep is often known by what we might call a
pet name because of one of its features. So, a sheep might be called
“Black Ear” or “Brown Leg.” In today’s Gospel, Jesus says the
shepherd calls his own sheep by name (John 10:3, not visible
in every English translation, alas!). Jesus, our Good Shepherd,
calls each of us by name. When you pray, you can pause for a moment
and imagine Jesus calling you by your name.
Many times throughout Scripture we are given
the reassurance that God knows us by name and calls us by name. In
Exodus 33:17, God told Moses he knew him by name (in the Hebrew, not
visible in every English translation). God told the prophet
Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you” (Jer 1:5)
and we can imagine God saying that about each of us. Psalm 139
reminds us of God knowing us intimately:
O Lord, you search me and you know me.
You yourself know my resting and my rising;
you discern my
thoughts from afar.
You mark when I walk or lie down;
you know
all my ways through and through.
Before ever a word is on my
tongue,
you know it, O Lord, through and through. (Psalm 139:
1-4)
That intimate knowledge God has of us
is reassuring. It is God knowing us intimately because God cares so
much about us even when we are in difficult situations. In Isaiah 43
we read,
But now, thus says the Lord,
who
created you, Jacob, and formed you, Israel:
Do not fear, for I
have redeemed you;
I have called you by name: you are mine.
When I was in seminary, my spiritual
director suggested that I insert my name instead of Jacob and Israel
when reading that passage. So you could try inserting your name:
But now, thus says the Lord,
who
created you, [name], and formed you, [name]:
Do not fear, for I
have redeemed you;
I have called you by name: you are mine.
This intimate love of God for us, calling us
by name, has specificity so we see God’s intimate care for us in so
many ways: when we are adopted by God as his sons and daughters when
we are baptized; when we have our sins forgiven in the Sacrament of
Reconciliation; when we united with the Lord in the Sacrament of the
Eucharist; when we receive the Sacrament of Confirmation to
strengthen our witness to the Lord; when the Lord blesses marriages
in the Sacrament of Matrimony; and when the ill are anointed in the
Sacrament of the Sick. To receive these sacraments we need priests
who are ordained in the Sacrament of Holy Orders. So, as we think
about Jesus as our Good Shepherd today, we think about priests
ministering in the name of Jesus and the need to pray for more
vocations to the priesthood. Without priests we will not have the
sacraments, so today we pray specially for vocations to the
priesthood and religious life that we will continue to have good
shepherds in parishes in the future.
We see the specificity of God’s intimate love
and care for us in so many other ways in the Catholic Church. The
Catholic Church operates thousands of hospitals, clinics, schools,
orphanages, nursing homes, and poverty relief agencies worldwide. It
is the largest charitable organization on the planet because of its
global reach and immense infrastructure extending to almost every
country. It educates more children than any other academic or
religious institution. It defends the sacredness of all human life
and defends marriage and family. In the ministry of the Catholic
Church, we can see fulfilled what Jesus said in today’s Gospel: “I
have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.”
(John 10:10)
Just as a shepherd in the Middle East has a
specific name for each sheep, Jesus knows us by name and his care
for us can be seen in very specific ways in priests giving us the
sacraments and in the many other ways in which the Catholic Church
serves us. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who calls us by name, came that
we may have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2026
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
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