A lot is going on in this gospel today. We have sheep and sheepfolds, shepherds, a gate and gatekeeper and we have thieves. But the message is truly about humility and recognizing who we truly need in this world in order to enter into the sheepfold through the gate so that we may have life and life to the abundantly.

Today in the midst of this pandemic the gospel also reminds us subtly that Jesus Christ did not come to earth in order to take our sufferings away from us—to make life a bed of roses—but rather to fill our sufferings with His Presence. And in His Presence, we might then accept Him and be transformed so as to accept what comes our way and transform it for the better—all the personal and collective “ills” of human life: sickness, loss, unemployment, broken relationships and even death. For “He is with us until the end of the age.” We are not abandoned.

Jesus announces that He is the gate, the mediator between us, the sheep, and God. In this we are sinners who need the Lord’s Presence and in that Presence we receive His grace and strength in this world. For some sheep who have no humility and cannot accept their weaknesses or their need for God, they become thieves and try to sneak over or around the gate rather than to walk through it (Him). The Pharisees were like that, going for rules rather than righteousness. Will we refuse to acknowledge who we are—sinners—and needing Christ? Will we refuse to be imperfect disciples in need of His grace in the Sacraments, thinking “I can do it myself—I AM?” Or will we in humility, acknowledge our weakness and ask of His help? Turning toward Him in the Penitential Rite of Mass and accept His unending love, mercy and strength? For in all times but especially now, let us take comfort in His Words: Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” Amen!