Sunday Homily

Fr. Justin Whittington, S.J.

May 11, 2025

The Good Shepherd and the Good Sheep

"I am the good shepherd… My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me.” The image of the Good Shepherd is so familiar, it surprises me that this passage in the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John is the only place in the Bible where it is expressed this way: The Good Shepherd. But the gospel writer is building on many centuries, over a thousand years of the history of Israel in the Bible, in which God and his chosen servants guard, govern, and lead Israel as a shepherd leads his flock. In the Exodus Moses leads Israel like a great flock. David is called from the flock to be the shepherd and King of Israel. In the Psalms it is said, “We are his people, the sheep of his flock.” In the prophet Isaiah, the Lord God himself “feeds his flock, gathering the lambs in his arms, carrying them in his bosom, and leads the ewes with care.” The lack of good shepherds, that is, faithful kings and leaders, in Israel is condemned by the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel. Even after the Resurrection, before Jesus ascended into heaven, he gave this command to Saint Peter and the Church: “Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.”

So we can be sure that God has sent us the Good Shepherd, Jesus, to be our leader, and he will continue to lead us by inspiring pastors and leaders for the Church today and always, like Pope Leo XIV. But the question for us today is, do we know what it is to be Good Sheep? How do we act as the Flock of the Lord, the People of God, the Church? The idea of being sheep sounds bad and weak, but it is not by being passive and timid that we are the Sheep of the Lord. The Gospel we just heard points out that the sheep of God recognize God’s voice and respond to it, but they do not recognize and will not follow another voice. Good sheep are wise and discerning! Also, there is a Spirit among the People of God that keeps them together. They desire to be with the other members of the flock, to stay together and not to stray. The sheep that strays may be listening to the wrong voice or may have forgot the voice of the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd and his pastors seek out the lost sheep, to lead them back.

What does it mean for us, then, to receive the care of the Good Shepherd and his pastors? I think there are three ways that the Shepherd needs to look after the sheep in the Church today. Firstly, giving them a spiritual connection to Jesus himself and one another. When Jesus fed 5000 (in Mk 6:34), “He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” Where is the spiritual connection? Haven’t we all been given a share in the same Holy Spirit, by our Baptism and Confirmation? We can lose touch with the Spirit, but the Spirit will never be out of touch with us. Ask for the Spirit, and you shall receive.

Secondly, the Good Shepherd and his pastors must tend and feed the sheep, a sacramental connection.  Psalm 23 says that “the Lord is my shepherd … and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” The shepherd must feed and heal and rescue the sheep, with the sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation and the Sacrament of the Sick. We, the sheep, grow stronger and more mature as we receive the care of the Church through sacraments.



And thirdly, besides the one Spirit and the Sacraments, the pastors of the Church must lead us all to Salvation, where the Good Shepherd has already gone. Jesus, the Good Shepherd lay down his life for his sheep. He became the sacrificial lamb, but God raised him on Easter morning. His life is eternal and we who follow where he leads, follow him into eternal life. This flock is not here forever, but is on the way to our eternal home where we will join the flock in heaven (John 10:16). So let us nurture the Spirit within and strengthen ourselves with the Sacraments, and we will enter Salvation with the Good Shepherd.