“The good shepherd lays down his
life for his sheep.”
Not long ago I heard the story of a farmer whose cows had broken through the pond ice in the pasture and several could not get out. The cows would freeze to death if he did not do something. One by one the farmer plucked them out with his loader tractor and a system of ropes; however, when it was time to extract the last cow from the icy water, the farmer slipped and fell in himself. Now he was trapped. He could not get a grip on the ice, and he could not reach anything to pull himself out. No one could see him from any road and no one would hear his shouts. If he did not find a way out, he too would freeze to death.
The farmer’s survival impulse moved him to a whole new level of concentration in order to claw and methodically slither out of the deadly predicament. Suffering from the icy experience, he should have sought some medical care, but he had to remove the last cow. He finished the job instead.
Many would consider this man to
be a good farmer, but when family and friends heard of his life-threatening
heroics for the sake of a few cows they were a bit astonished. One would normally find the phrase “the good
farmer or rancher lays down his life for his cattle” silly at best. A human life is so
much more valuable than the life of cattle or sheep!
Perhaps
that is precisely the Lord’s point: just as it would be ridiculous for a man to
trade his life to protect an animal’s, so it is even more ridiculous for the
eternal Son of God to take upon himself human nature and die to save us, his
creatures, from death. The only thing that could explain such a willingness on the part of the Good Shepherd would be a
love that exceeds all known worldly logic.
Even though the distance between God and man is infinitely greater than
that between a human being and a sheep, the Son of God took upon our nature and
laid down his life so that we might have life to the full.
We
celebrate this Fourth Sunday of Easter as Good Shepherd Sunday, and we relish
that “God has so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” God has pursued us and died for us with a
love that calls us back to him. As
children of the Father, we are made to expend our lives for another. If we do not give our lives for Someone, then we will give our lives for something, even
cattle.
We are made to give, and God calls all of us to give our lives to Him in a life of holiness. When we give ourselves to God in the universal call to holiness, we see the fruits of specific calls to marriage, priesthood, and religious life. The Good Shepherd not only saves us, but calls us to share in his life.
“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
May our parish hear his call to holiness, follow him in a life of discipleship and give our lives to Him. He knows us. He knows our desire to give our lives, and his call can show us how. Anything less than a response to his call would be silly.
