No one can take them out of the Father’s hand

At 13,14.43-52; Ps 99; Rev 7,9.1 4b-17; Jn 10,27-30
12 MAY

The Pastor and God, to whom the flock belongs, must be one heart, one thought, one will, one Word and one single work. If the Pastor wants to be a true Shepherd, he must always have his ear turned towards his God, to listen to him, and all of himself committed to carrying out every order and command of his Lord for the greater good of the flock entrusted to him. The Holy Scripture reveals to us the damage that the Pastors have produced whenever they separated from their God and Lord. Can God allow his flock to perish for the shepherds’ bad behaviour? Never. He sees his shepherds who have become mute dogs, mercenaries, profiteers of the flock, thieves, murderers and brigands and decides to take care himself of his flock.

All you wild beasts of the field, come and eat, all you beasts in the forest! My watchmen are blind, all of them unaware; They are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; Dreaming as they lie there, loving their sleep. They are relentless dogs, they know not when they have enough. These are the shepherds who know no discretion; Each of them goes his own way, every one of them to his own gain: “Come, I will fetch some wine; let us carouse with strong drink, And tomorrow will be like today, or even greater” (Is 56,8-12).

Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who shepherd my people: You have scattered my sheep and driven them away. You have not cared for them, but I will take care to punish your evil deeds. I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I have driven them and bring them back to their meadow; there they shall increase and multiply. I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear and tremble; and none shall be missing, says the Lord (Jer 23,1-4).

For thus says the Lord God: I myself will look after and tend my sheep. As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep. I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark. I will lead them out from among the peoples and gather them from the foreign lands; I will bring them back to their own country and pasture them upon the mountains of Israel (in the land’s ravines and all its inhabited places). In good pastures will I pasture them, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing ground. There they shall lie down on good grazing ground, and in rich pastures shall they be pastured on the mountains of Israel. I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest, says the Lord God. The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal (but the sleek and the strong I will destroy), shepherding them rightly (Ez 34,11-11-16).

It is right to ask oneself: what is the secret of Christ Jesus that makes him be and to remain forever the Good Shepherd for the whole flock of the Father? The secret of Lord Jesus must be the same as every other man’s, constituted in him, through him and with him, shepherd of the Father’s flock. The secret is the being of Jesus always from the will of the Father. It is his eternal obedience. It is listening to the voice of the Father. We can affirm that He is the Good Shepherd of the flock, because the Father is for him his Good Shepherd. He lets himself be led by the Father through his Holy Spirit in the will of the Father. He can lead the Father’s flock according to the will of the Father. This relationship is eternal.

My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

The secret of Christ Jesus must be the secret of every Pastor in Him, with Him and for Him. If the Shepherd in Him is also Pastor from Him, He will also be Shepherd for Him. If He is not Shepherd from Him, He will no longer be Pastor in him and not even for him. The flock will be scattered, dispersed, consumed and destroyed by abandonment to the loss of all certainty in truth, morality, life and death. Without the Shepherd, the flock dies.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints ensure that every Pastor in Christ is a Shepherd from Christ.