I hope you have a great week. It is not always easy to find the time to reflect on the readings during the week but i hope you can at least read and reflect this homily.

God Bless

We know people in different ways and in different capacities. Some people we know as our parents. Some people we know as children. Others we know as siblings, uncles, aunts or other different relatives. We also know people as bosses, or as employees or co-workers. We know some as teachers and others as students; we know doctors, nurses, patients and the list goes on and on and on. We know people in different ways because we have different relationships with them in different capacities. But the common thread between all of these relationships is that there are set expectations or set values attached to these particular relationships. We have certain expectations of our parents as children and as parents of our children. In other words there is a set understanding of what the values and expectations are.

Today, we hear of a relationship that we are called to have. Jesus says that he is the Shepherd and you and I, we, are the sheep. I don't know about you but that does not sound very nice! Are we all going to go out of here going baaaa baaaa baaaa? If you think about it - it does not sound very nice-to be a sheep. But that is probably because our understanding of what a shepherd is and what the relationship is with his sheep is very limited. We do not know what that relationship means, or what Jesus meant by that relationship.

What we know today about shepherds and sheep is that a shepherd today, if we ever saw or heard one, we would know that they have dogs that coral their sheep together; they bring them back in, let them roam on the hills, and then bring them back into the farm or to the ranch. Today, the shepherd does not sleep with the sheep; he doesn't stay with them; he comes back to his own house and goes out and gets his dogs to bring the sheep back to him when needed.

In ancient times, the shepherd had a very different relationship. A shepherd back then had a small flock of sheep and he would know his sheep by name. He would name each of his sheep, much the way we name our pets. We know them by name and when we call them by name, they come because they recognize our voice. The sheep were not pets, but he would know them so well t hat he would call each by a name, and they would recognize his voice. If a sheep got hurt in any way, the shepherd would tend to that wound immediately. And remember that most of them were nomadic so they were on the walk all the time and he would sleep with the sheep. If a sheep got hurt badly, the shepherd would carry it on his shoulders to the next port of rest. If a sheep got lost, he would coral his sheep and then go and seek and find the lost sheep. That was the expectation; that was the understanding of what the shepherd does.

And so when we hear today that Jesus is the Good Shepherd and we are the sheep, he is saying to us is that he knows that you and I by name, and that when he calls us, we ought to know his voice and when we are hurt, he will come and tend to us; and when we are lost, he will come and seek us out and find us. That is the kind of relationship that Jesus is trying to get across in this passage. That he is the shepherd who will care for his flock.

But there is another thing that he says here that might be a little strange - that he is the gate. And again, if we do not understand ancient times, we also would not understand this. The gate was not like a metal gate. You see, there were nomadic tribes and in each of these places where they would shelter, there was what is called a sheepfold. It was a walled-in area with an opening at the front. Through that opening, all the different shepherds would bring all their sheep inside. All the different sheep would be mixed in together but when the shepherd calls out their names all the sheep would follow that shepherd out.

There was a wall all the way around the sides, but there was this one opening, and at night the shepherds would sleep at the entrance called the gate. If you were a shepherd, you would come in and go out of that gate. If you were a robber, you would come around some other way. You would not go in through that way. And if there was only one shepherd with sheep in that sheepfold, then he would lay full length across the gate so as to protect the sheep and to guard against anyone trying to come in to steal the sheep, or the sheep wandering out. Jesus protects and he cares for his fold, his sheep, his disciples. He will always protect us in the dark of night and in the darkness of our lives; he will not let any harm come to us and to ensure we do not wander away.

The challenge is that he is both the shepherd and the gate to us, he promises to care for us, to seek us when we are lost and to protect us when we are in times of darkness. All that sounds wonderful, but what does that really mean to you and me today? Well, it means that if we call ourselves Christians, then we are to model our lives after Christ which means then that you and I are called to go out and take care of the hurting sheep among us. You and I are called to go forward and to seek the lost sheep among us. You and I are called to protect the fold against people who would have us disbursed and otherwise. You see, to be a Christian means to model our lives after Christ and that means that we must act as a shepherd and a gate to one another. All sounds fine and wonderful for our immediate family, my children, my parents, my brothers and sisters. And yet there may be are some struggles with that when the children become adults themselves, when they no longer want to be a part of the fold and no longer want to be a part of the Christian community; then this becomes a greater challenge. Or when our family starts to have arguments then it becomes a little more difficult.

Or even still, the fold that we are part of is not just our immediate family. Our fold is also that of our larger Christian community. We are called to care for all those who are hurt; all those who are lost; we are called to reach out to the jobless, the under-employed, the people who are on the streets. We are called to do something about that and not to wander around aimlessly. We have a purpose. Our purpose is to be like the Good Shepherd and to reach out to those who are hurt, and to protect as best we can.

So, today as we leave here nourished at the table of our Lord, we also come away strengthened to be the Good Shepherd and the gate to others; to seek those who are hurt and to tend to them; to seek those who are lost and to try to bring them back to the fold; to seek those who are in darkness and in the night of their life and to protect them. We are called to be the Good Shepherd. We are called to be the gate.