Sheep That Go Astray
Gospel Commentary for 4th Sunday of Easter

By Father Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap

ROME, APRIL 11, 2008 (Zenit.org).- This is Good Shepherd Sunday, but this time we are not going to focus our attention on the Good Shepherd, but on his antagonist.

Who is the person who is defined as the “thief,” the “stranger”? Jesus is thinking in the first place of the false prophets and the pseudo-messiahs of his time who posed as emissaries of God and liberators of the people, but who in reality did nothing but send the people to die for them. Today these “strangers” who do not enter in through the gate, but who sneak into the sheepfold, who “steal” the sheep and “kill” them, are fanatic visionaries, or astute profiteers, who speculate on the good faith and naivety of the people. I am referring to the founders and leaders of the religious sects that are springing up around the world.

When we speak of sects, we must be careful not to put everything on the same level. Protestant evangelicals and Pentecostals, for example, apart from isolated groups, are not sects. For years the Catholic Church has maintained an official dialogue with them, something that it would never do with sects.

The true sects can be recognized by certain characteristics. First of all, in regard to their creed, they do not share essential points with the Christian faith, such as the divinity of Christ and the Trinity; or rather they mix foreign and incompatible elements with Christian doctrines -- re-incarnation, for example. In regard to methods, they are literally “sheep stealers” in the sense that they try to take the faithful away from their Church of origin, to make them followers of their sect.

They are also often aggressive and polemical. They invariably spend more time accusing and criticizing the Church, Mary and, in general, everything Catholic, rather than proposing their own positive ideas. They are the antipodes of the Gospel of Jesus, which is love, sweetness, respect for the freedom of others. Gospel love is absent from the sects.

Jesus has given us a sure criterion for recognizing them: “Beware,” he said, “of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but who underneath are rapacious wolves. By their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:16). And the most common fruits of sects are divided families, fanaticism, and apocalyptic expectations of the end of the world, which are regularly contradicted by the facts.

There is another kind of religious sect, born outside the Christian world, generally imported from the East. Unlike those we have been talking about, they are not aggressive. Indeed, they present themselves “in the clothing of lambs,” preaching love for all, for nature, the quest for the deep self. They are often syncretistic ensembles, that is, they weave together elements from various religions, as is the case with the New Age.

The great spiritual damage that is caused to those who allow themselves to be convinced by these new messiahs is that they lose Jesus Christ, and with him that “life in abundance” that he came to bring. Some of these sects are also dangerous for mental health and public order. The recurrent cases of subjugation and group suicides show us where the fanaticism of some sect leaders can carry people.

When we speak about sects we must also say a “mea culpa.” People often end up in sects in search of the human warmth and support of a community that they did not find in their parish.

[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]


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Father Raniero Cantalamessa is the Pontifical Household preacher. The readings for this Sunday are Acts 2:14a, 36-41; 1 Peter 2:20b-25; John 10:1-10.

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. Both the Old and New Testaments use the image of a shepherd and his flock to describe the unique relation of Israel to God In today’s Gospel, two brief parables about sheep reveal Jesus as our unique means to salvation ("sheep gate") and as a selfless, caring leader who provides protection and life itself.

To understand what Jesus was getting at, we have to know the context. To whom was Jesus speaking when he called himself the Good Shepherd? And what did it mean to them? First, Jesus was not talking to his followers. He was addressing the Pharisees. They were accusing him of being from the devil because he healed a blind man on the Sabbath. His response was that he was the Good Shepherd, not like the hired hands who collected their pay for watching the sheep, but abandoned them in their time of need, because they didn’t really care for the sheep. So the Pharisees knew exactly what Jesus meant — he was claiming to be God. They also knew he was contrasting himself to them — the hired hands entrusted to care for God’s people, but caring only for themselves.

During the time of Jesus in the land of Palestine, the shepherds would bring the sheep down from the hills in the evening to protect them at night when the wolves and mountain lions were hunting their prey. At night, the shepherds would gather their sheep together and lead them into large pens or sheepfolds which had five feet high stone walls. The shepherds put the prickly briars along the top of the wall to prevent the mountain lions and wolves jumping over it. Now, the door way was about two feet wide and it was only a narrow space in the front wall facing a fire of wood lit outside at night. The shepherd himself would sleep there in the small opening of the rock wall with his club and staff. If any mountain lion would come, the shepherd would fight it off with his weapons, his short stocky club or his long pointed staff. Literally and actually, the shepherd himself was the door.

parable Jesus claims that he the Good shepherd is also the door. It was as if Jesus was saying: “I am the door to the Father’s house and Father’s family. I am the door to the Father’s safety and to the fullness of life. I am the door to the heavenly banquet. In other words, Jesus himself is the door - the living door, the talking door, the speaking door who extends an invitation to us this day: “Won’t you come in? It is through Jesus the door that you come into the sheepfold where you are protected from the wolves of life. There is safety and security in being a Christian, in being part of the household of faith, in living within the sheepfold of Jesus. Besides, when your relatives and the best friends are Christians, it has a way of protecting you from the craziness and insanity of life that you find all around you in the world. There is a spiritual, emotional and psychological security and safety within Jesus and his Church, within the protectiveness of Christ and Christian friends and Christian family.
Messages: 1) Be good shepherds to the sheep entrusted to your care. Every one entrusted with the care of someone else is a shepherd. In that sense, priests, parents, teachers, doctors, nurses, government officials and the politicians are all shepherds. The teacher who really loves the children in her charge, the nurse who carefully tends to the sick, the friend who listens attentively to another's problems, the stranger who goes out of the way to be kind-–all these remind us of the abiding presence of the Good Shepherd among us. The parents become good shepherds when they provide the means for their children to grow both physically and spiritually. They should be the role models for their children, encouraging them in their prayer and sacramental life. Above all, parents should pray for their children and infuse into them sound Christian moral principles.
2) Be the good sheep of the Good Shepherd. a) Hear and obey the voice of Jesus through the meditative reading of the Bible, through attention to sermons and through participation in renewal programs. b) Receive the spiritual food given by the Good shepherd through faithful sacramental life and especially by active participation in the Eucharistic celebration. c) Cooperate with the pastors appointed by the Good Shepherd. This cooperation is expressed by active involvement in the various parish programs, by constructive criticism and encouragement offered to the pastors and by praying daily for the pastors