Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand.” (John10:27–28) The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is an endearing image. Many artists have depicted the gentleness of Christ as He leads His sheep or carries a straying lamb on His shoulders. We are given this image today as we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday.

Recall the first time there was a miraculous catch of fish in the Gospels. In Luke 5:1–7, Jesus was preaching to the people on the shore from where He satin Peter’s boat just a short distance away. After preaching, Jesus told Peter, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Peter did so and there was such a large catch of fish that the Apostles needed help to haul it in.

Today is the Feast of all Feasts! It is the Feast of Mercy! This Feast originated from the private revelations given to Sr. Maria Faustina Kowalska, a Polish cloistered nunwho died in 1938. In the year 2000, she was canonized by Saint Pope John Paul II, and the Feast of Mercy was instituted as a universal Feast of the Church. To better understand this Feast, let’s read some of the private revelations Jesus gave to Saint Faustina: “Whoever approaches the Fountain of Life on this day will be granted complete forgiveness of sins and punishment” (Diary #300).

The angels of God have been present at the most significant moments of human history. As Jesus began His public ministry and overcame the temptations of the devil in the desert, angels from Heaven came to minister to Him. When Jesus prayed in solitude, especially during His agony in the garden, He was comforted by angels. At the empty tomb, it was an angel who first announced the good news that our Lord had risen. And at the end of time, it will be the angels of God who bring forth God’s justice.

There are many paths which lead to your glorious eternity, but, O my God, you have made a highway which leads there with the surest certainty. Now, my soul, this is none other than the way of the holy cross. This way is the royal highway of all the elect, for it leads to the royal city of the King of kings. It is the royal highway; for it is along this way that the great company of the saints advances, together with the Queen of saints and the great King of Paradise.

Is this a hard doctrine? At the conclusion of the Eucharistic discourse, delivered at the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus practically lost his entire Church because his disciples said “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” Again, if he were speaking only at the symbolic level, why would this theology be hard to accept? No one left him when he observed that he was the vine or the good shepherd or the light of the world, for those were clearly metaphorical remarks and posed, accordingly, no great intellectual challenge.