Reflection for Monday May 8, Fourth Week of Easter: John 10:11-18

Gospel: John 10:11-18

Jesus said: "I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father."

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Reflection:

There is this story of a family man who had a terminal ailment, instead of just waiting for his death to come. He still worked very hard for his family and he never neglected to bring his family every Sunday to church for Mass. He did his best to provide for the material and spiritual needs of his family. In his last few days he gathered his family and he told them that he had done everything for them. So that they could have the best future that they could ever dream of, then after a day he died.     

This father in our story is a good shepherd to his family for he worked very hard for them to ensure their future. How many fathers are like this father in our story? There are many but there are many more who are fathers in name only. They don’t care about the future of their family they instead focus on their many vices to satisfy themselves. They don’t allow Jesus to shepherd them they instead cling to the dictates of this world and they make it their shepherd.

The family man is somewhat like Jesus who gave His life for our salvation. Do we completely trust our lives to Jesus our good shepherd? Or we trust more on ourselves where we give more priority to our own personal needs rather than our need for Jesus. 

For example our Sunday obligation of going to Mass we sometimes take this for granted because we give more importance to our own agendas. How can we be properly shepherd by Jesus if we don’t give much importance to the celebration of the Holy Mass? How can we be shepherd by Jesus if we don't even read the bible?

Trusting Jesus our good shepherd takes patience we may not see now what we want from Him. But we must still continue to trust our lives in Him and never on our own selves. – Marino J. Dasmarinas