Commentaries on today’s gospel go at length to lay down in some details for the sake of modern hearers of the gospel regarding the milieu and the life of shepherd and sheep. Except for those who are raising sheep it would still be difficult for many of us who have hardly seen a real live sheep to appreciate fully any explanation. For the more sophisticated, intelligent and educated among us, it is hardly flattering to liken one’s self and other believers to dumb, helpless, totally dependent animal. The philosopher atheist Sartre would really be insulted by this comparison. For him even the existence of God is an impingement upon a person’s liberty. God’s existence in itself, limits my existence and that is very offensive to human dignity. To be like a sheep! You could almost hear the modern today say: that is hard saying who could believe that.
How then do we approach this message more sensibly. First of all it is not mainly about the sheep. It is about the shepherd. How the true Shepherd that is Christ, is totally dedicated to the well being of all those who were entrusted to him by the Father. Jesus is not in the habit of losing any sheep entrusted to him by God. He is never neglectful of anyone given to his care. Of course the sheep has a mind of its own and does get lost. The shepherd goes after him to protect him and bring him back. He knows it must be a terrifying thing to be alone in the wilderness with so many life threatening forces around. The closeness, the care, the steadfast concern of the shepherd to the sheep gradually conditions the sheep to know his voice, to distinguish it from other shepherds’ voices. So too with us believers. There are many contending voices calling us claiming that if we follow them all will be well. But we know that many among us have been disappointed after having encountered false shepherds. You see we pay more attention to what they promise to give us… like a greener pasture, independence, freedom – without first listening to voice of the shepherd in order to discern our true shepherd.. To really listen well, suppressing all our egocentric thoughts and desires when he speaks. There, in listening, in the silence we will know the voice of the true shepherd. It is with this sensitivity to the voice of the shepherd that the sheep avoids a lot of troubles, which helps them to survive. They know it’s him.
The shepherd is a gate too. Jesus is our gate. It simply says that out of habit the sheep knows that their shepherd comes in through the gate. Any other place will startle them especially if someone comes over the fence. For the true believer all truth bearers must pass through the truth of Christ who is the gate. The truth of Christ is that his sheep may have life and may have it in its fullness. False prophets, teachers and leaders will not pass through the gate, will not pass through Christ for their darkness will be revealed. Therefore the sheep must not be impressed by the agility of the thief to climb over fences and the way he makes it look so easy. Sheep at times want to jump over the fence, you know. The pasture is always greener on the other side. It really is really about the shepherd.
But the question still remains. What about us, are we like sheep? Yes and No. No, we are not dumb, we are very intelligent and the Father made us so and Jesus wants us so. We must love God with our whole heart, with our whole mind and with all our strength. That is not a sign of dumbness nor lack of dignity. Yes, we are like sheep if we acknowledge that this immense universe in which God has placed us, this life which God has given us is so infinitely vast and complex that our minds and heart cannot grasp it. It is a case of our utter limitedness that we need a Shepherd and that we look like sheep. It’s not dumbness but limitedness. Intelligent sheep to be sure. But we need a guide who will always be with us till the end of time. No other shepherd can do that for us. We need a shepherd to explore this wonderful life and benefit from it. We need a shepherd who will protect us from harm and deceit of hirelings, thieves and robbers. A word of caution though… to aspire to be higher than being a sheep is to become a shepherd. That was the downfall of the first 2 sheep. In this sense we are sheep by nature. Understood well it can be a life of bliss.