Belonging to the Shepherd Divine

WORD 2day: Saturday, 4th week in Ordinary time

February 4, 2023: Hebrews 13: 15-17, 20-21; Mark 6: 30- 34

What do we have to worry about, when the Lord is our Shepherd! We need only to become the sheep of the flock that belongs to the Lord. Becoming the sheep of the flock of Christ can happen only through one way: to endlessly do good. Do good without any reason, without any hesitation, without any expectation, without any discouragement, without ceasing.

There are three qualities needed that one may be capable of such way of life! First of all, faith with which one accepts this challenge from the Lord. How can one think of doing good, when there are concerns and laments about one's own life? Only the one who has an enormous faith placed on the Lord, can think of doing good, without minding what is happening in one's own life. 

Secondly, endurance with which one withstands all disheartening factors. Faith does not promise that there would be no blows to suffer or no strikes to take. But it requires endurance that can strengthen the person to bear all troubles, but go on with hope in the heart and dreams in the eyes. 

Thirdly, a sensitivity with which one knows what the other needs, before the other even expresses it. That is an empathy, an acceptance of the other as one's own brother or sister, looking at the joys and sorrows of the other as one's own. This is what Jesus was all about: he was the empathy of God with us, he was the manifestation of the relationship that God offered to us inspite of our unworthiness, merely becaue God loved us as our Divine Shepherd. 

Jesus, the Shepherd was an epitome of these qualities -  he accepted the challenge of being good, endured all that worked against it and treated everyone around him with utmost sensitivity! Do we really belong to his flock?