On Jesus, the Good Shepherd!

From the Gospel Reading, Jesus said: "My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one."

So what do we understand when Jesus, being our Shepherd?

As our original and real Shepherd what has he been doing for us? Bring us our salvation. And what does salvation mean? Salvation means heaven, and the abundant divine life of grace on earth.

Let us break down the above words of the Gospel.

"My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me." Who are his sheep? His sheep are they whom Jesus knows, and they who follow Jesus. Who does Jesus knows, and who follow Jesus? Answer:"My Father, .. has given them to me.. They are the souls to whom God the Father has given the grace of faith, the grace to want to love God. Next paraphrase: ".. and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one. This means the security of salvation, what the Evangelicals say, "once saved, are saved". Without literally taking the Evangelicals meaning of the phrase, this means actually according as the above verse states, that no power under heaven can triumph over God and his God-given grace except if an individual human being chooses to refuse the grace.

Now what is comprised by this salvation given us by Jesus? "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish". Salvation, which is given us by our Divine Shepherd Jesus, consists of an eternal life, such that those who are given it shall not perish. Eternal life signifies a life that is forever. And not to perish signifies never getting into the damnation of hell.

In present day terms what is the shepherding mechanics by which salvation from our Lord Jesus is received and enjoyed by present day believers?

The Church

, also referred to as Christ’s Kingdom On Earth. It was this Church, which has been authorized to make disciples of all nations by preaching to them all that Christ has spoken in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And so beginning from Peter, through his Successor the Popes, up to and down to every single Bishop and Priest and Deacon and lay minister, including every single member of the Church, the salvation of Christ and in Christ is being handed down and given to all who believe. Through this tradition of the Church."When Christ redeemed the world He created the beginning of the new earth. From sinful men and women,Saints have been made, i.e. sanctified and purified by Christ's sacrificial life, death and resurrection. With Christ as the Head the pioneer holy ones, the Saints, together with the Angels of Heaven became the people of God, the start of the Kingdom of God on earth. In other words, through the Church of Christ have risen Saints of God, both those in heaven, and the saintly ones still being cleansed in Purgatory, and the saintly ones still journeying on

earth.

Now by what guarantee and chief resource does the Church realize all this? We have been gifted with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said unless we receive the Holy Spirit we can not know him, and proclaim him. Yet this Holy Spirit works first formally inaugurated the Church, then continues to build it up. Then through the Church tradition the Holy Spirit confers on the us the Sacraments. "Via the sacraments, the believers/followers of Christ receive the faith, profess the faith, and share or impart the faith to non-believers and un-believers through manifold ways of anointment by the Spirit. Such anointment by the Spirit is effected within and through the believers/followers by way of the fruits of the Holy Spirit: piety, knowledge, understanding, wisdom, fortitude, and counsel." All elements towards becoming a saint, or saintly of God.

Now the main significance of the sacrament or sacramentals in general is this that they serve to connect us with God, they serve to give us the presence of Christ even while on earth. But aside from the 7 Sacraments, specially the Eucharist, which is the End and Summit among the 7 Sacraments, there is still one Kingdom Reality and Element, which or rather who serves us MOST sacramentally, ie who purveys to us all the varied manners of Divine presence or sacramental presence of God. And this is Mary together with the Communion of the Saints, including the Angels. Through Mary together with the Saints and Angels, all the sacramental graces are mystically channeled to us. One word to describe this: divine intercession. We receive of every single grace through the intercession of Mary and the Angels and Saints. Why and How so? Because and through the Incarnation of Christ, it has beed deemed the way to bring God back to us, namely through all forms of "incarnational" delivering, or natural delivering, or even of super-naturalized delivering of God to the material or natural beings, like us. In other words in order for us to access the Divine as to receive divine graces we need natural or human instrumentation, or even in terms of the Angels, created instrumentation. In the first place it is hard to imagine God working his grace directly upon us. But we could imagine saintly humans, or Angels, and Celestial Mary doing the transmitting and the effecting of God’s grace according to all our spiritual and material needs.

Now going back to that aspect of the Gospel message regarding who are the sheep: Once we have been received into the one flock of Jesus,we kind of get promoted or elevated. Cath. Doors Ministry tells us of the letter of Paul to the Galatians, which reveals to us, "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise." [Gal. 3:28-9; Col. 3:11] And from the reality of having one sheep, the same Catholic Door Ministry talks about having One Shepherd, and how the sheep and the Shepherd belong to each other. "...there is only one Shepherd for all. There is one fold, one flock, to which all the sheep belong. There is only

one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church through which is found the fullness of grace for the salvation of all. Those who seek out the Spirit of Truth with a

sincerity of heart, they hear the voice of Jesus and they follow Him accordingly."

Then ultimately, the final Shepherding Act of our Lord Jesus will be his , welcoming us into the glory of heaven. This Sunday’s other Reading inspirationally foretells for us how it shall be for all believers received into heaven. John writes, "These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they stand before God’s throne and worship him day and night in his temple. The one who sits on the throne will shelter them. They will not hunger or thirst anymore, nor will the sun or any heat strike them. For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

More commentary from Catholic Doors Ministry: "During today's Second Reading from the Book of Revelation, we heard of those "who, have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." [Rev. 7:14] Some have interpreted the white robes to mean those who have been martyred. But this is not the case. When reviewing the Book of Revelation in its entirety, we learn that the white garments represent all the Christians who have been chosen by God. [Rev. 3:5, 6:11, 7:9, 7:13, 19:8] In other words, those who wear the white garments, they are the living saints who form the fullness of the mystical Body of Christ. From the vision of John that we have heard today, therefore, no matter how much suffering it may refer to, it is important for us to understand that it ends with a promise. There will come a time when we will no longer hunger or thirst. [Rev. 7:16; Is. 49:10; Jn. 6:35, 7:37] The sun will no longer strike us, nor any of its scorching heat. [Rev. 7:16; Ps. 121:6] The Lamb shall be our Shepherd [Rev. 7:17; Ps. 23:1-17; Is. 40:11; Ez. 34:11-6] and He will guide us [Rev. 7:17; Jn. 10:11-6; Ex. 15:13; Deut. 1:33; Wis. 9:11] to the springs of the water of life. [Rev. 7:17; Jn. 4:14; Jer. 2;13] And God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. [Rev. 7:17, 21:4; Is. 25:8]

When that day shall come upon each and every one of us, we shall remember the fulfillment of the prophecy that we have heard today. We shall remember that our salvation came through the, the Shepherd, who is the very Lamb of God. At that time, we shall perceive the fulness of the mystery as to exactly when and how we first heard the voice of the Good Shepherd and followed it. (End of quotations from Catholic Doors Ministry.)

IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.