From Fr. Colin
The readings for this weekend form part of a larger discourse that Jesus has with those around him, in which he describes himself as the good shepherd. A crucial point being made in the image of Jesus as the good shepherd is in the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy. In Ezekiel we read: Look! I myself will search for my sheep and examine them. As a shepherd examines his flock while he himself is among his scattered sheep, so will I examine my sheep. I will deliver them from every place where they were scattered on the day of dark clouds. (34:11-12)
Here we understand that it is God Himself who seeks us out and brings us back into relationship with Him. It is not the sheep who seek out their shepherd, but rather the shepherd who goes to seek out the lost sheep and bring them back. God it is, in the person of His Son, who searched us out, came and found us, and, in the Easter event we continue to celebrate, brought us back into the one fold – the body of Christ. Christ came to seek us out because we were lost and scattered, and thus it is he and he alone who is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. As St. Peter writes in his first Epistle: For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. (2:25)
As Jesus pointed out, the good shepherd also knows his sheep – knows each of them individually by name – and it is for this reason the sheep will follow, for they recognize His voice. In those times when we ourselves face that sense of loneliness or despair, when we feel isolated or abandoned and perhaps even unloved, we can look once again to the good shepherd who not only leads us but knows us, precisely because he it is who came to find us. As a verse of a familiar hymn goes: “Perverse and foolish I have strayed, but yet in love he sought me, and on his shoulder gently laid, and home rejoicing brought me.”