Reflection #26
Jesus Is the Good Shepherd
Thus He Himself spoke: "I am the good Shepherd." (John 10:11). The office of a good shepherd is none other than to guide his flock to good pastures and to guard them from wolves; but what shepherd, O my sweet Redeemer, ever had goodness like to Thine, who didst give Thy life to save Thy sheep, which we are, and to deliver us from the punishment we had deserved?
St. Peter says of Jesus: "Who his own self bore our sins in His body upon the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live to justice, by whose strips we were healed." (I Peter 2:24). To heal us of our ills, this good Shepherd took upon Himself all our debts and paid them in His own body, dying with agony upon a cross. It was this excess of love toward us His sheep which made St. Ignatius the martyr burn with desire to give his life for Jesus Christ, saying: "My Love is crucified," as he wrote in his epistle, as though he would say, "What! Has my God been willing to die on a cross for me, and can I live and not desire to die for Him?" And in truth, what great things did the martyrs do in giving their lives for Jesus Christ, who died for the love of them? Oh how the death endured for them by Jesus Christ made sweet to them all their torments--the scourges, the racks, the hooks, the red-hot plates of iron and the most painful deaths!
But the love of this Good Shepherd was not satisfied with giving His life for His sheep; He desired also, after His death, to leave them His very body itself, already first sacrificed on the Cross, that it might be the food and pasture of their souls. "The burning love which He bore for us," says St. John Chrysostom, "induced Him to unite Himself to us, in order to make Himself one thing with us, for such is the instinctive desire of ardent lovers."
And then, when this Good Shepherd sees one of His sheep lost, what does He not do, what means does He not take, to recover it? And He does not cease to seek it till He finds it. "If He shall lose one of them," says Our Lord in the Gospel, "He goes after that which was lost until He finds it." And when He has found it, rejoicing, He places it upon His shoulders, that He may not lose it again; and calling to Him His friends and neighbors, that is, the Angels and Saints, He invites them to rejoice with Him for having recovered the sheep that was lost. Who then would not love with all his affections this good Lord, who shows Himself thus loving to sinners who have turned their backs upon Him and lost themselves of their own accord!
O my amiable Savior, behold at Thy feet a lost sheep! I have left Thee, but Thou hast not abandoned me. Thou hast left no means untried to recover me. What would have become of me if Thou hast not thought of seeking me? Unhappy me! How long have I not lived far from Thee! Now, through Thy mercy, I trust that I am in Thy grace; and though formally I fled from Thee, now I desire nothing but to love Thee and to live and die embracing Thy feet. But as long as I live, I am in danger of leaving Thee. Oh bind me, bind me fast with the chains of Thy holy love, and cease not to seek me for so long as I live on this earth. "I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost; seek Thy servant." (Psalms 118:176).
O Advocate of Sinners, obtain for me holy perseverance.
[Excepted from 'Devout Reflections and Meditations' by St. Alphonsus Liguori] (Public domain)
St. Peter says of Jesus: "Who his own self bore our sins in His body upon the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live to justice, by whose strips we were healed." (I Peter 2:24). To heal us of our ills, this good Shepherd took upon Himself all our debts and paid them in His own body, dying with agony upon a cross. It was this excess of love toward us His sheep which made St. Ignatius the martyr burn with desire to give his life for Jesus Christ, saying: "My Love is crucified," as he wrote in his epistle, as though he would say, "What! Has my God been willing to die on a cross for me, and can I live and not desire to die for Him?" And in truth, what great things did the martyrs do in giving their lives for Jesus Christ, who died for the love of them? Oh how the death endured for them by Jesus Christ made sweet to them all their torments--the scourges, the racks, the hooks, the red-hot plates of iron and the most painful deaths!
But the love of this Good Shepherd was not satisfied with giving His life for His sheep; He desired also, after His death, to leave them His very body itself, already first sacrificed on the Cross, that it might be the food and pasture of their souls. "The burning love which He bore for us," says St. John Chrysostom, "induced Him to unite Himself to us, in order to make Himself one thing with us, for such is the instinctive desire of ardent lovers."
And then, when this Good Shepherd sees one of His sheep lost, what does He not do, what means does He not take, to recover it? And He does not cease to seek it till He finds it. "If He shall lose one of them," says Our Lord in the Gospel, "He goes after that which was lost until He finds it." And when He has found it, rejoicing, He places it upon His shoulders, that He may not lose it again; and calling to Him His friends and neighbors, that is, the Angels and Saints, He invites them to rejoice with Him for having recovered the sheep that was lost. Who then would not love with all his affections this good Lord, who shows Himself thus loving to sinners who have turned their backs upon Him and lost themselves of their own accord!
O my amiable Savior, behold at Thy feet a lost sheep! I have left Thee, but Thou hast not abandoned me. Thou hast left no means untried to recover me. What would have become of me if Thou hast not thought of seeking me? Unhappy me! How long have I not lived far from Thee! Now, through Thy mercy, I trust that I am in Thy grace; and though formally I fled from Thee, now I desire nothing but to love Thee and to live and die embracing Thy feet. But as long as I live, I am in danger of leaving Thee. Oh bind me, bind me fast with the chains of Thy holy love, and cease not to seek me for so long as I live on this earth. "I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost; seek Thy servant." (Psalms 118:176).
O Advocate of Sinners, obtain for me holy perseverance.
[Excepted from 'Devout Reflections and Meditations' by St. Alphonsus Liguori] (Public domain)
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