Sheep herding

On today’s Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, a feast that celebrates the wonderful gift of God’s love that comes to us in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the first reading and the Gospel both give us the image of the Lord as the shepherd who seeks after his stray sheep.

"I will seek out my sheep and rescue them from every place where they have been scattered in the dark and cloudy day."

Those stray sheep may include ourselves. We may have followed “our own lights” or “the way things are done nowadays” and have found ourselves very, very far from the Lord on a very dark and cloudy day.

On the other hand, we may be the ones who are called to help the shepherd, to help find those desperately lost sheep and to help bring them home. (We probably know where a few of them are already.)

All of us need to listen to the voice of the Lord, the Good Shepherd, the Sacred Heart, calling us to walk ever more closely with Him and to help bring others to experience more fully the greenest pasture, the most peaceful water, the deepest love.