Reflection for the 4th Sunday of Easter

The painting on the cover of the April issue of Magnificat is The Good Shepherd by Bartolome Estaban Murillo. What struck me most about this painting is that while the good shepherd is affectionately caressing the sheep with his hand, his eyes are looking towards heaven. The sheep meanwhile is intently looking at Jesus, the good shepherd, with devotion and love. It looks like the sheep, after being lost and then found by the shepherd, realized its foolishness in wandering away from the good shepherd and from now on will follow the shepherd wherever he goes. And where will the shepherd go? Where will Jesus lead his sheep? To heaven! To His Heavenly Father! That’s why Jesus’ gaze is towards heaven: He is showing the sheep where it should be going by His gaze.

But how do we get to heaven? What is the way of the Good Shepherd? The way of the Good Shepherd is through His Life, Passion, Death and Resurrection. The second reading of this Sunday from 1 Peter tells us exactly what that entails:

“For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps…
When he was insulted, he returned no insult;
when he suffered, he did not threaten;
instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly.”

 Jesus has left us an example and a path to follow. If we want to follow Jesus, we have to be “like a lamb led to slaughter or a sheep silent before shearers, he did not open his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7) In our own life, do we suffer in silence when we are hurt or do we make sure people know that we have been offended? Let us imitate our Good Shepherd and keep silent when we’ve been wronged and count on God to come to our defense and to look towards heaven “from where shall come my help” for our consolation and our reward.

Knowing too well our fallen human nature, we know that once we are found by the Good Shepherd and have started on the right path, we will stray again. We should find comfort in the entrance antiphon, “The merciful love of the Lord fills the earth; by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, alleluia.” No matter where we stray, God’s merciful love will always be with us. God’s love is in the whole of creation. Creation came into being because of His love, so no matter where we go, we will never be far from His love. His love will always follow us and encompasses us through life’s journey. Just like in Psalm 139, the psalmist cries out:

Where can I go from your spirit?
From your presence, where can I flee?
If I ascend to the heavens, you are there;
if I lie down in Sheol, there you are.
If I take the wings of dawn
and dwell beyond the sea,
Even there your hand guides me,
your right hand holds me fast.

In the Gospel today, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, “walks ahead of [the sheep], and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.” In this season of Easter, we are reminded over and over again that Jesus walks ahead of the sheep through His passion, death and resurrection and in a few weeks, through His Ascension, we are reminded of where ultimately our journey with Jesus will lead us: Heaven! May we recognize Jesus’ voice in our own lives and follow Him wherever He may lead us in this life and be happy with Him in the next.