Christ the Teacher
Today’s Gospel John 10:1-10
Jesus said: ‘I tell you most solemnly, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but gets in some other way is a thief and a brigand. The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock; the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out. When he has brought out his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice. They never follow a stranger but run away from him: they do not recognise the voice of strangers.’ Jesus told them this parable but they failed to understand what he meant by telling it to them.
So Jesus spoke to them again:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
I am the gate of the sheepfold.
All others who have come
are thieves and brigands;
but the sheep took no notice of them.
I am the gate.
Anyone who enters through me will be safe:
he will go freely in and out
and be sure of finding pasture.
The thief comes
only to steal and kill and destroy.
I have come
so that they may have life and have it to the full.’
The allusion to the thief and robber is relatively clear. Both Augustine and Chrysostom say this scripture is speaking of the Antichrist and false Christs which are here already and will come to steal from the flock christ shepherds. Those who enter by the "gate" will be safe. The scriptures say Christ's sheep will take no notice of them.
This begs the question of how so many get deceived. Is it that they don't really know the voice of the shepherd? Or is it that the one who comes to steal, kill, and destroy has mad skills. Or that we are at times too confident in our ability to follow the shepherd? Perhaps its a mix of them all:
The Blessed Father (St Francis) would say: “Too much confidence makes one guard too little against the enemy. If the devil can get but one hair from a man, he will soon make it grow into a beam. Even if after many years he still has not made him fall whom he has tempted, he is not put out over the delay, as long as he catches him in the end. For this is his business, and he is busy about nothing else by day or by night.” (Thomas Celano).
To say the least the devil has nothing but time... Make sure you use your's getting to know the voice of the Good shepherd.
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