REFLECTIONS

"Following the Voice of the Shepherd ”

Everything is grace. Only the shepherd's call and the recognition from divine love decides who belongs to the flock. To hear and follow the well-known voice is all that is required of man; not justice or achievement. For all have sinned and suffered the loss of the glory of God. Those who are justified are justified by the gift of his grace through redemption in Jesus Christ (Rom 3:23-24). Sinners who have gone astray are the first among those to receive his recognition. Their joy fills the Easter season; they press in upon the risen Shepherd, so wondrous with his wounds and his humility. They are happy in his pastures: 'The mysteries of God are good pasture. The words of Holy Scripture are pasture too" (Saint Ambrose). There the Good Shepherd gives his sheep the flesh and blood of the lamb which has been sacrificed for them to eat; he gives them himself to make them strong. He gives them the pure water of his divine word to drink and the milk of his mysteries ....

Even when he leads along rough ways, it is always the good pasture that he has in sight for us at last. But not "good" in an earthly sense; Christ has brought no paradise on earth, but peace and everlasting life for the soul. The wild beasts, hatred, anger, envy, and every kind of sin, lie defeated in us beneath the powerful arm of the Shepherd .... Therefore the Church makes her thanksgiving today directly with the introit: 'The merciful love of the Lord fills the earth" (cf. Ps 33:5, Entrance Antiphon) .... What the mystery of Easter, what the mysteries of our incorporation into the flock have brought about will be perfected by our daily following of him along the shepherd's way.

Between the pastures there lies the road of faithful devotion ... a desert way perhaps, but easily gone in the Lords company .... The Lord has shown us recognition, and in baptism he has put his seal upon us. We were weak and imperfect, but God has recognized us as his own; he has shown us his love. May he grant that we may remain on his broad pastures forever, and be nourished with those mysteries as we go along the road of this life.

SISTER AEMILIANA LOHR, O.S.B.
Sister Aemiliana ( ┼1972) was a German Benedictine nun who wrote about the liturgy.