This Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Easter, is Good Shepherd Sunday. Our Gospel reading comes from Jesus' "Good Shepherd Discourse" in John 10. I would like to offer a brief reflection on what the readings together for Good Shepherd Sunday this year tell us about the meaning of having Jesus as our Good Shepherd, of being led by him into green and safe pastures.

I think that there is a connection between Jesus' words in our Gospel reading about the security of his flock in his hand and the Father's, and what we hear in the first reading, from Acts, about how the Gentiles "who were destined for eternal life came to believe." I likewise think that there is a connection between those words from the Gospel, and the vision about which we hear in the second reading, from Revelation, of the multitude who are eternally shepherded and made perfectly happy and safe by Jesus in heaven.

We should note, though, that these readings suggest at the same time that to be followers of the Good Shepherd requires having a conscious and explicit and intentional relationship with him. In the first reading, it is important that Paul and Barnabas preach the Word to the Jews and Gentiles, and that the Gentiles do, in fact, believe in the Gospel and the Person of the Lord Jesus. Likewise, in the second reading, it is important that those in the multitude "have washed their robes ... in the blood of the Lamb," and that they now, explicitly and personally, worship Jesus.

This is not to say that the many people who have not really known Jesus therefore do not in any sense have him as their Shepherd. By being open to truth and goodness, they can be open to him, and be led by him. But, of course, the ultimate point of this is precisely so that they can enter together with us explicitly and fully into Jesus' great flock in heaven. And as we should rejoice to know and follow Jesus explicitly already in this life, to have him as fully as possible as our Shepherd in this life, so we should be eager to bring real knowledge of him to all people in this world, by joining in the work of evangelization.

We also find our second reading this year in particular an interesting combination of images. As throughout the book of Revelation, Jesus, who became the sacrifice that saves us, is called the Lamb. But also, in keeping with this Sunday's theme, he, the Lamb, is said to "shepherd" the great multitude. There is, then, some connection between Jesus' roles of sacrificial Lamb, and Shepherd. He shepherds us, we might say, especially by being the Lamb sacrificed for our salvation. He shepherds us by, as he says, laying down his life for his sheep, for our life.

To follow our Good Shepherd, then, is also to follow the Lamb. To follow the Good Shepherd, that is, is to follow him through his death and resurrection for us. Indeed, his death does not simply abolish death. It abolishes death as "the end." It abolishes the power of death. It saves us by transforming death. To follow the Good Shepherd, then, is to accept death rather than fearing it. It is, especially, to refuse to allow the fear of death to deter us from living a life of holiness and evangelization.

We might also note that it is especially through the sacraments, and perhaps most especially through the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, that Jesus gives us the life that he has gained for us by his death and resurrection. Put differently, in this world, it is especially in the Eucharistic sacrificial banquet that our Shepherd pastures his flock and gives us to eat and drink and so gives us life. And it is especially by being given life by Jesus in the Eucharist and the other sacraments that we are brought into a relationship with him, and prepared to overcome evil and death, and made able to enter into eternal life in heaven.

Let us, then, listen attentively and anew to the Gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and share that Gospel with the world, and receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, and follow him in holiness and confidence, into heaven.