Fourth Sunday of Easter

The Good Shepherd 

            The main task of the Good Shepherd is to bring us to good pastures. What are the good pastures for us? We have the wrong idea where to find them or what they are. We think that they are wealth, honours, health, entertainment, food, beauty, pleasurable things, love, gadgets, adventure, travelling; all sort of different things, depending on our age and circumstances. If we don’t agree what our good pastures are, how are we going to follow the Good Shepherd to where he is trying to lead us? This is the real problem in our lives. We are not a hundred percent convinced that Jesus is leading us to an amazing place, without any strings attached.

            All the saints are very clear about this. They know where the good pasture is: heaven. And who is the one leading us there: Jesus Christ. Therefore, they trust Jesus with their lives, they follow him without hesitation. If heaven exist, all our lives have to be measured by this reality. The devil is trying to distract us from our destination and make sure we fix our eyes on things here on earth, without realising that all things here break down eventually, they pass away and can never satisfy us completely. When are we going to wake up to this reality?

            When Saint Therese of Liseux was very small, she used to go to her mum, kiss her and say: “I’d like you to die.” When she was reprehended, she answered with big puzzling eyes: “But you say that to go to heaven you need to die.” This is children’s logic. Death is the gate of heaven, and how we try with all our might to avoid it and delay it. We should be more familiar with our sister death, that will make us the favour of bringing us to eternal life. This is how the saints looked at life and death, from the other side of the curtain, that separates us from eternity. We don’t realise how thin that curtain is; a simple stroke can tear it.

            God has placed into our hearts a desire for eternity, a longing for a place where we can be with God and the people we love for ever. Psalm 42 describes this longing very nicely: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” He has done this for us not to be lost, distracted, bogged down, sidetracked. We come from God and we go back to God. It is so easy to lose our way. This is why we have a restless heart, never happy with the passing things of this world, with a desire for infinity, eternity and immensity. Our Good Shepherd helps us to walk with our eyes fixed on heaven.

            The best we can do for others is helping them to reach these eternal pastures. This is the true, essential, definitive reality of our lives. Whoever is saved, wins; whoever is not, loses. We cannot forget that at the end of the day, we are here to reach heaven and to bring with us the people God has placed close to us. We cannot leave anybody behind. The best way to show our love for them is to make the path of heaven easier for them. Let us follow our Good Shepherd a bit more closely.

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