Shepherd and Gate

Today's Reflections

Shepherd and Gate 

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Jn 10:1-10

[Jesus said to the Pharisees,] ¹“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. ²But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. ⁵But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” ⁶Although Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to tell them.

⁷So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸All who came [before me] are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

Reflection:

I am the gate for the sheep. We are given by Jesus this unfamiliar image of himself in the Gospel. He says that those who enter through him, the gate, will be saved. There is only one gate that leads to salvation and opens up to the abundant life of God, and it is none other than Jesus Christ. Are there no other gates to eternal life? None, just as there is no other way to the Father than Jesus who is the way.

Jesus, the only gate, is not the same as, but is greater than, the Church or any religion. We can hope that people who belong to other religions or to no religion at all may still pass through the gate that is Christ. Christ provides an opening for them—gives them through the Holy Spirit the grace to encounter him—in their own religions, too, and/or in other human beings, and in nature itself.

Pray that Jesus’ voice may resound in the hearts

of people who do not yet know Jesus.