Fr. Michael Williams

A sheep without a shepherd is in big trouble. It would be exposed to many dangers. Probably the most dangerous hazard would be predators, such as wolves or wild dogs. A sheep cannot defend itself against such creatures. It needs a good shepherd who would do his utmost protect his sheep.

Christ is our Good Shepherd who seeks to protect us from the dangers that threaten us in this world. The Good Shepherd will carry us on His shoulders to deliver us from evil. Ultimately, the final deliverance will only occur when He carries us into eternity. But before that we must face danger, although we need not be fearful for Christ is with us. The greatest danger that we face in this world is the invisible enemy called Satan, who seeks to draw us away from God and ensnare us in his own kingdom of darkness. We cannot see Satan, but we can see his fingerprints everywhere, and unfortunately, he has souls working for him in this world. I recently read a booklet, which has been recently published by the diocesan exorcist for Westminster Diocese, Fr Jeremy Davies. He says that Satanic activity is on the increase in our society, as a result of rising secularism and superstition. He warns, ‘Satan is the Tempter, and as he originated the fall of man, so he still directly influences us to reject grace and commit sin’. Remember it was Satan who tempted Judas to commit the grave sin of betrayal.

Yet Jesus has come to save us from this invisible spiritual wolf, who is a very real enemy. ‘God loves us’, and sent the Good Shepherd, who lays down His life for us. It was from Heaven that the Lord Jesus first ‘saw the crowds and felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd’. That’s why He came. Our Lord wants to be our shepherd because ‘He made us, we belong to Him, we are His people, the sheep of His flock’. Yes, we belong to the Lord, but there are forces seeking to draw us away from Him. We must stay close to our Shepherd, if we want to reach the fresh and green pastures of Heaven.

When Jesus began His public mission He sought to establish a sheep-pen for His vulnerable flock, ‘the harassed and dejected sheep’, to keep them safe. In today’s gospel we learn of Jesus constructing this sheep-pen, which we now know as the Church. He built His Church on twelve foundation stones- the Apostles. These twelve men were chosen not because of their merits, but because Jesus decided it was to be them. ‘It is very reassuring that the foundation stones of the Church were such unlikely material. It is the greatest proof of the presence ad power of the Holy Spirit in the Church’ (O’ Flynn). These Apostles, and their successors-the Pope, Bishops and Priests- must ‘proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand’, to teach people about spiritual realities, and also to ‘Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils’. It needs to be said that the greatest healings occur when somebody is dead in sin and are raised to new spiritual life after receiving absolution in Confession, or when someone is cleansed from Original Sin in the waters of Baptism, or when we are fed with the Bread of Life to sustain our drooping spirits in this world.

When Padre Pio founded a hospital at San Giovanni in Italy he wanted to call it ‘The House of Relief from Suffering’. This is an apt name for the Church itself. It can provide solace and strength ‘to the crowds who are harassed and dejected’ by the vagaries of life, and the wiles of the enemy. So let’s stay close to the Good Shepherd present in His Church, for ‘we are His people, the sheep of His flock’.