This is because the hired hand works for pay and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd.
I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father.
Because of this, I give my life for my sheep. I have other sheep which are not of this fold. These I have to lead as well,
and they shall listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, since there is one shepherd.
The Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down freely.
It is mine to lay down and to take up again: this mission I received from my Father.”
REFLECTION:
In the Gospel, Jesus calls himself the “Good Shepherd” and declares that he wishes there to one day be “one flock”.
It is a reminder to all of us about the expansiveness and all-embracing character of the message of the Gospel,
that it was intended by Jesus to be for all people, not just for a few.
It’s always easier to relate to persons who think like ourselves, act like us, behave like us. There are instances,
even in the life of the church, when the exclusion of some - because of differences in the way they think or
preferences one way or the other – has become a sore spot in the Body of Christ.
There’s a line often attributed to St. Augustine: “In necessary things unity, in non-necessary things liberty,
in all things charity.” It would be well for us to be guided by these words,
especially when we sometimes encounter believers who may think differently or act differently from us.
There are, of course, things about our life of faith that are simply “non-negotiables”, for instance,
our belief in the sacredness of life, but (as St. Augustine has intimated) there is also a wide latitude
in the life of faith that the exclusion of some should never be something we practice lightly.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2020