From: John 10:1-10
The Good Shepherd
[7] So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the
sheep. [8] All who came before Me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did
not heed them. [9] I am the door; if any one enters by Me, he will be saved, and
will go in and out and find pasture. [10] The thief comes only to steal and kill and
destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
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Commentary:
1-18. The image of the Good Shepherd recalls a favorite theme of Old Testament
prophetic literature: the chosen people is the flock, and Yahweh is their shepherd
(cf. Psalm 23). Kings and priests are also described as shepherds or pastors.
Jeremiah inveighs against those pastors who had let their sheep go astray and
in God’s name promises new pastors who will graze their flocks properly so that
they will never again be harassed or anxious (cf. 23:1-6; also 2:8; 3:15; 10:21;
Isaiah 40:1-11). Ezekiel reproaches pastors for their misdeeds and sloth, their
greed and neglect of their responsibility: Yahweh will take the flock away from
them and He Himself will look after their sheep: indeed, a unique shepherd will
appear, descended from David, who will graze them and protect them (Ezekiel
34). Jesus presents Himself as this shepherd who looks after His sheep, seeks
out the strays, cures the crippled and carries the weak on His shoulders (cf.
Matthew 18:12-14; Luke 15:4-7), thereby fulfilling the ancient prophecies.
From earliest times, Christian art found its inspiration in this touching image of
the Good Shepherd, thereby leaving us a representation of Christ’s love for each
of us.
In addition to the title of Good Shepherd, Christ applies to Himself the image of
the door into the sheepfold of the Church. “The Church,” Vatican II teaches, “is
a sheepfold, the sole and necessary gateway to which is Christ (cf. John 10:1-10).
It is also a flock, of which God foretold that He Himself would be the shepherd
(cf. Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:11ff.), and whose sheep, although watched over by
human shepherds, are nevertheless at all times led and brought to pasture by
Christ Himself, the Good Shepherd and Prince of shepherds (cf. John 10:11; 1
Peter 5:4), who gave His life for His sheep (cf. John 10:11-15)” (”Lumen Gentium”,
6).
1-2. The flock can be harmed in a subtle, hidden way, or in a blatant way through
abuse of authority. The history of the Church shows that its enemies have used
both methods: sometimes they enter the flock in a secretive way to harm it from
within; sometimes they attack it from outside, openly and violently. “Who is the
good shepherd? ‘He who enters by the door’ of faithfulness to the Church’s doc-
trine and does not act like the hireling ‘who sees the wolf coming and leaves the
sheep and flees’; whereupon ‘the wolf snatches them and scatters them’” (St. J.
Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 34).
3-5. In those times it was usual at nightfall to bring a number of flocks together
into one sheepfold, where they would be kept for the night with someone acting
as look-out. Then at dawn the shepherds would come back and open the sheep-
fold and each would call his sheep which would gather round and follow him out
of the pen (they were used to his voice because he used to call them to prevent
them from going astray) and he would then lead them to pasture. Our Lord uses
this image—one very familiar to His listeners—to teach them a divine truth: since
there are strange voices around, we need to know the voice of Christ—which is
continually addressing us through the Magisterium of the Church—and to follow
it, if we are to get the nourishment our soul needs. “Christ has given His Church
sureness in doctrine and a fountain of grace in the Sacraments. He has arranged
things so that there will always be people to guide and lead us, to remind us con-
stantly of our way. There is an infinite treasure of knowledge available to us: the
word of God kept safe by the Church, the grace of Christ administered in the
Sacraments and also the witness and example of those who live by our side and
have known how to build with their good lives a road of faithfulness to God” (St. J.
Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 34).
6. Christ develops and interprets the image of the shepherd and the flock, to en-
sure that everyone who is well-disposed can understand His meaning. But the
Jews fail to understand—as happened also when He promised the Eucharist (John
6:41-43) and spoke of the “living water” (John 7:40-43), or when He raised Lazarus
from the dead (John 11:45-46).
7. After describing His future Church through the image of the flock, Christ extends
the simile and calls Himself the “door of the sheep”. The shepherds and the sheep
enter the sheepfold: both must enter through the door, which is Christ. “I”, St. Au-
gustine preached, “seeking to enter in among you, that is, into your heart, preach
Christ: if I were to preach other than that, I should be trying to enter by some other
way. Through Christ I enter in, not to your houses but to your hearts. Through
Him I enter and you have willingly heard me speak of Him. Why? Because you
are Christ’s sheep and you have been purchased with Christ’s blood” (”In Ioann.
Evang.” 47, 2-3).
8. The severe reproach Jesus levels against those who came before Him does not
apply to Moses or the prophets (cf. John 5:39, 45; 8:56; 12:41), nor to the Baptist
(cf. John 5:33), for they proclaimed the future Messiah and prepared the way for
Him. He is referring to the false prophets and deceivers of the people, among them
some teachers of the Law—blind men and blind guides (cf. Matthew 23:16-24) who
block the people’s way to Christ, as happened just a little before when the man
born blind was cured (cf. John 9).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: John 10:22-30
Jesus and the Father are One
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Commentary:
22. This feast commemorates an episode in Jewish history (cf. 1 Maccabees
4:36-59; 2 Maccabees 1-2:19; 10:1-8) when Judas Maccabeus, in the year 165
B.C., after liberating Jerusalem from the control of the Seleucid kings of Syria,
cleansed the temple of the profanations of Antiochus Epiphanes (1 Maccabees
1:54). From then onwards, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev (Novem-
ber - December) and throughout the following week, all Judea celebrated the an-
niversary of the dedication of the new altar. It was also known as the “Festival
of Lights” because it was customary to light lamps, a symbol of the Law, and
put them in the windows of the houses (cf. 2 Maccabees 1:18).
24-25. When these Jews ask Jesus if He is the Messiah, “they speak in this
way”, St. Augustine comments, “not because they desire truth, but to prepare
the way for calumny” (”In Ioann. Evang.”, 48, 3). We have already seen Jesus
reveal, by His words and deeds, that He is the Only Son of God (5:19ff; 7:16ff;
8:25ff). In view of their good dispositions, He explicitly told the Samaritan wo-
man (4:26) and the man born blind (9:37) that He was the Messiah and Savior.
Now He reproaches His listeners for refusing to recognize the works He does
in His Father’s name (cf. 5:36; 10:38). On other occasions He referred to works
as a way to distinguish true prophets from false ones: “You will know them by
their fruits” (Matthew 7:16; cf. Matthew 12:33).
26-29. Certainly faith and eternal life cannot be merited by man’s own efforts:
they are a gift of God. But the Lord does not deny anyone grace to believe and
be saved, because He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the know-
ledge of the Truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). If someone tries to avoid receiving the gift
of faith, his unbelief is blameworthy. On this point St. Thomas Aquinas teaches:
“I can see, thanks to the light of the sun; but if I close my eyes, I cannot see:
this is no fault of the sun, it is my own fault, because by closing my eyes, I
prevent the sunlight from reaching me” (”Commentary on St. John”, ad loc.).
But those who do not oppose divine grace do come to believe in Jesus. They
are known to and loved by Him, enter under His protection and remain faithful
with the help of His grace, which is a pledge of the eternal life which the Good
Shepherd will eventually give them. It is true that in this world they will have to
strive and in the course of striving they will sustain wounds; but if they stay uni-
ted to the Good Shepherd nothing and no one will snatch Christ’s sheep from
Him, because our Father, God, is stronger than the Evil One. Our hope that
God will grant us final perseverance is not based on our strength but on God’s
mercy: this hope should always motivate us to strive to respond to grace and
to be more faithful to the demands of our faith.
30. Jesus reveals that He and the Father are one in substance. Earlier He pro-
claimed that God was His Father, “making Himself equal with God”—which is
why a number of times the Jewish authorities think of putting Him to death (cf.
5:18; 8:59). Now He speaks about the mystery of God, which is something we
can know about only through Revelation. Later on He will reveal more about this
mystery, particularly at the Last Supper (14:10; 17:21-22). It is something the
evangelist reflects on at the very beginning of the Gospel, in the prologue (cf.
John 1:1 and note).
“Listen to the Son Himself”, St. Augustine invites us. “’I and the Father are one.’
He did not say, ‘I am the Father’ or ‘I and the Father are one [Person].’ But when
He says, ‘I and the Father are one,’ notice the two words ‘[we are]’ and ‘one’ ...
For if they are one, then they are not diverse; if ‘[we] are’, then there is both a
Father and a Son” (”In Ioann. Evang.”, 36, 9). Jesus reveals that He is one in
substance with the Father as far as divine essence or nature is concerned, but
He also reveals that the Father and the Son are distinct Persons: “We believe
then in the Father who eternally begets the Son; in the Son, the Word of God,
who is eternally begotten; in the Holy Spirit, the uncreated Person who pro-
ceeds from the Father and the Son as their eternal Love. Thus in the three divine
Persons, “coaeternae sibi et coaequales”, the life and beatitude of God perfectly
One superabound and are consummated in the supreme excellence and glory
proper to uncreated Being, and always ‘there should be venerated Unity in the
Trinity and Trinity in the Unity’” (Paul VI, “Creed of the People of God,” 10).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.