Israel’s mission—to be God’s instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth—is fulfilled in the Church. By the “Word of God” that Paul and Barnabas preach in today’s First Reading, a new covenant people is being born, a people who glorify the God of Israel as the Father of them all. The Church for all generations remains faithful to the grace of God given to the Apostles and continues their saving work. Through the Church, the peoples of every land hear the Shepherd’s voice and follow Him.

The Good Shepherd of today’s Gospel is the enthroned Lamb of today’s Second Reading. In laying down His life for His flock, the Lamb brought to pass a new Passover by His blood, freeing “every nation, race, people and tongue” from bondage to sin and death. The Church is the “great multitude” John sees in his vision today. God swore to Abraham his descendants would be too numerous to count. And in the Church, as John sees, this promise is fulfilled.

The Lamb rules from the throne of God, sheltering His flock, feeding their hunger with His own Body and Blood, leading them to “springs of life-giving waters” that well up to eternal life. The Lamb is the eternal Shepherd-King, the son of David foretold by the prophets. His Church is the Kingdom of all Israel that the prophets said would be restored in an everlasting covenant.

It is not a kingdom any tribe or nation can jealously claim as theirs alone. The Shepherd’s Word to Israel is addressed now to all lands, calling all to worship and bless His name in the heavenly Temple. This is the delight of the Gentiles—that we can sing the song that once only Israel could sing, today’s joyful Psalm: “He made us, His we are—His people, the flock He tends.”

St. Cyril of Alexandria explains the People who Listen and those who do not listen to God’s call this way:

The mark of Christ’s sheep is their willingness to hear and obey, just as disobedience is the mark of those who are not his. We take the word ‘hear’ to imply obedience to what has been said. People who hear God are known by him. No one is entirely unknown by God, but to be known in this way is to become part of his family. Therefore, when Christ says, ‘I know mine,’ he means I will receive them and give them a permanent mystical relationship with myself. It might be said that inasmuch as he has become man, he has made all human beings his relatives, since all are members of the same race. We are all united to Christ in a mystical relationship because of his incarnation. Yet those who do not preserve the likeness of his holiness are alienated from him…’My sheep follow me,’ says Christ. By a certain God-given grace, believers follow in the footsteps of Christ. No longer subject to the shadows of the law, they obey the commands of Christ and, guided by his words, rise through grace to his own dignity, for they are called ‘children of God.’ When Christ ascends into heaven, they also follow him.

We shall always be obedient children of God in our day-to-day life and follow Him to Heaven which he promised us.

Love and prayers,

Fr. Charley