WHO IS THE SHEPHERD OF MY SOUL?
With Jesus revealing Himself as the Good Shepherd (Jn 10:11-18), He is also implying that there is a Bad shepherd out there, who has no relationship with the Truth. The Bad Shepherd deceitfully calls and lures his flock to choose Death over Life. To choose sin over holiness. This is of the Good Shepherd here on earth. Jesus feeds His flock with faith from the fountain of baptism. He feeds us with His love in Holy Communion; that is His very own Self. He is the Truth, the Way and the Life. Faith is a divine gift given to Christians from heaven, but it’s not always unwrapped by God’s children on earth. Holy faith is our spiritual passport into Heaven. It is the one and only thing we can bring with us beyond the grave. To lose it now is to gamble with eternity. The unfaithful who never opened or used this divine gift, will create a huge problem for themselves, when they wish to Passover into Heaven beyond the grave (Jn 10:1-10). They will see the Good Shepherd but sadly not recognise His voice or know who He is because they rejected and ignored Him on earth.
JESUS IS OUR GOOD LOVING SHEPHERD
Jesus laid down His life for us, in order to give us new life, now, and beyond the grave. His path to heaven is paved with the spirit of holiness (1 Peter 2:24) and obedience to God’s Will. Satan, the Bad Shepherd, wants to lead us off the path of holiness, by tempting us to reject Jesus and His teachings. The devil’s path is dark and paved with sin. It is littered with immoral living, debauchery, fornication, anger, pride and selfishness. He feeds his flock on a diet of lies and hatred, resulting in them not being able to forgive or to love. Satan convinces many Christians to abandon the gift of faith and replace it with their own homemade counterfeit faith. He lies again, because he knows that wrong advice will not get them into heaven but instead, will get them into hell. Jesus’ Word is like a Lamp, full of Light, to guide us on the right path to heaven. The unspiritual food of the devil poisons and kills the soul, resulting in it spiritually collapsing and never making eternal life. Jesus never stops offering us all the opportunity to repent for our sinful ways, before it is too late. To repent is to convert and live by God’s Truth. But, not everybody likes the taste of Truth. Their senses have become tasteless to faith, preferring the taste of sin. This is why Jesus compares unpractised faith to the likes of a tasteless salt, because it is useless. It does not enhance or preserve food for the purpose of eating (Matt 5:13). Faith never practiced, will not preserve the soul for heaven. We are not hired help. Our duty is to defend the family, which is the Church, and not abandon it in challenging times. God bless, Fr. Brendan.