Jesus gives us a brief autobiographical sketch in today’s Gospel. He is not like the hired man who abandons the sheep when danger threatens. We can always count on him, each one of us. He has given his life for our salvation, and so he is always at our side with a love that saves.
He is the Good Shepherd because he loves us and knows us, who we are, inviting us to enter into a deeper relationship with him, inviting us to know and love him better.
He wants to be the Good Shepherd to all people, to protect them, guide them and gather them into the one flock, and he invites each of us to aid him in this enterprise. So, the question is: by my prayers and works how do I help the Good Shepherd achieve this goal?
I’ll pray over this question today, asking him for a deeper intimacy, so as to be open to discern his quiet advice on how he wants me to be a collaborator in his work of salvation.