This Fourth Sunday of Easter is sometimes called Good Shepherd Sunday. We hear Jesus tell us in the Gospel from St. John this weekend, “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” It should get us thinking about the traits of the Good Shepherd that Jesus is talking about – traits that we should be living out in our lives as His followers.
We would expect this Good Shepherd to be caring, compassionate, forgiving, merciful, charitable and patient. We would also expect the Good Shepherd to show sacrificial love, to teach, to challenge us to change our ways where we need to, to show us discipline. A Good Shepherd would not just do things to placate us – a Good Shepherd would challenge and teach us when needed and be compassionate and merciful when needed.
Our Lord lived out the life of The Good Shepherd perfectly since He is God incarnate. As His followers, we should try to imitate and reflect these traits and virtues to the best of our abilities. So on this Good Shepherd Sunday let’s focus on the totality of what The Good Shepherd is and then follow His path.
