MARY, OUR MOTHER

SCRIPTURE COMMENTARY #356

" I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep. He that is a hireling, and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, beholdeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf snatcheth them, and scattereth them: he fleeth because he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know mine own, and mine own know me, even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep." (John 10:11-15)

THE LOVE OF JESUS FOR SINNERS: The touching parable of the lost sheep shows our Lord's compassionate love for individual sinners. The lost sheep signifies a sinner who, obeying his own evil inclinations and the allurements of sin, has separated himself from Jesus, and is shut out from the number of the faithful. But the Savior does not withdraw His love from the wanderer. Even as, during His sojourn on earth, He labored for the conversion of sinners, so does He now go after the sinner. He calls him by His grace, by His priests, and invites him to return once more to the fold, by means of the Sacrament of Penance. And when He has found him, He supports him on the difficult road of penance, and receives him back with joy. Jesus does this not for His own sake, since He does not require this straying sinner: He seeks him out of pure love and compassion for the poor sinner himself, wandering about and in momentary danger of falling into the abyss of Hell. And it was because the Good Shepherd and His "friends" were so anxious about the salvation of that sheep which was in danger, that their joy of his return and salvation is greater, and shows itself more outwardly, than their calm joy about the faithful who are walking without wavering on the path of salvation.

[From 'A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture' by Bishop Knecht, D.D.]
(1899 Douay-Rheims Bible)