Fourth Sunday of Easter

Today is the Good Shepherd Sunday; this is based on the Gospel of John 10: 11-18 where Jesus made Himself known to His followers as a good shepherd. Now I ask, what qualifies a shepherd to consider him good? What is this goodness in a shepherd? According to Jesus, He is the good shepherd because He is willing to lay down His life for his sheep. Not only that He mentioned this –to lay down His life for the sheep, but also He mentioned this line several times in the said Gospel. We cannot fully understand why Jesus said this for several times unless we relate this with the Gospel of John 15: 13 which states: “Greater love has no one than this; to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” In line with this thought, we can now fully appreciate that Jesus is a good shepherd because He loves His sheep so much that He is willing to lay His life for them. It is the quality of His love that makes Him a good shepherd. In other words, with the quality of His love, everything is good. And for us who follow Jesus, love means to give up one’s life for the good of the other. Moreover, Jesus is willing to give up His life not only for the good sheep who listen to Him. Rather, He also loves those sheep who have not listened to Him as He said in the Gospel: “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd.” With His words, Jesus assures us that because of His great love, His priority is to give what is good for us and not what can condemn us.

My dear friends in Christ, today we are called to listen to Jesus. We know if we have listened to Jesus if we are confident that despite the problems or crisis we face in life, there is something good to happen because Jesus is willing to lay down His life for us. If we listen to Jesus, we do not compare our life with others, rather we learn to follow Jesus by giving up our life for the good of the other. For those who are married, it is somehow very difficult to be faithful to each other, but if you listen to Jesus as your good shepherd, you know you have to do what is good for your spouse. You do not seek his/her condemnation but his/her salvation i.e., for the good of each other’s soul. You have promised to love each other until death, then fulfil it. For your children, teach them to love Jesus so that they will love you with the love of Jesus. You will know if your children listen to Jesus as their good shepherd if they will take care of you as parents when you grow old, sick and dying, without resentments. For those who are alone in life, you know you are not really alone if you listen to Jesus as a good shepherd.  

My dear friends, let me end my homily by telling you my experience. Since June 19, 2012, I have been assigned as a parish priest of San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila in a remote barangay of Batan, Aklan. The parish is used to be known as a poor parish if not the poorest in the diocese. I knew what my life would be so I prepared everything I believed I needed for my survival. I brought with me some sacks of rice, canned goods and other ready-to-cook food. But as the days went by, I ran out of resources. My car broke down. There was no more rice to cook. There were even no canned goods left except for the empty cans. I could not pay for the electric and water bills of the parish. I really worried too much what would happen to me then. So, I prayed before the altar and cried. I said, “Lord, why do you allow me to suffer? I accepted this parish and I believe I am doing what is good for the parish but what is happening to me right now?” Of course, I did not hear God answering me when I was praying. But really I could not imagine how good Jesus is as a shepherd. When I began saying our monthly mass in four public elementary schools within my parish, each child would offer me a handful of rice which they wrapped using a cellophane. Believe it or not, when we collected the handful of rice they offered, I have more than enough rice to sustain us every month. How about our food? Believe it or not, although our parishioners are mostly tenants or workers in a fishpond if not fishermen, every Sunday before or after the mass, they would bring me some milk fish, king crabs, lobsters, sugpo, talaba, hipon, my favourite ghost shrimps (kamantaha), etc. Truly I can say that Jesus will always do good for us if we listen to Him as our shepherd. In fact, I was only 120 pounds when I first arrived in the parish. But now I am 185 pounds. My dear friends, Jesus loves us so much that He will do everything that is good for us. Amen.