During the Mass on Good Shepherd Sunday at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis prayed for the priests and doctors who gave their lives during the pandemic. The "thieves and marauders" are the false shepherds who are interested in the flock only to pursue “a career", for "politics" or "money". “The style of Jesus must be the style of the shepherd, there is no other.”
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - On Good Shepherd Sunday, Pope Francis turned his thoughts "to the many shepherds who give their lives for the faithful in the world, even in this pandemic", and "to other shepherds who take care of people, the doctors."
The intention of today's Mass, the fourth of Easter, celebrated by the pontiff in Casa Santa Marta, is that "the example of the priestly shepherds and medical shepherds might help us take care of the holy faithful people of God.”
Francis noted that in Italy alone "more than 100 priests" and "154 doctors" have died serving during the pandemic. In his homily, referring to today's Gospel (John 10, 1:10), he juxtaposed the "good Shepherd" who "enters the door" to the "thieves and bandits".
"All those who came and did not enter through that door were thieves or bandits or wanted to take advantage of the flock: the fake shepherds. In the history of the Church many of these have exploited the flock. They were not interested in the flock but only in pursuing a career, politics or money. The flock knows them, has always known them and looked for God on its roads.”
The good shepherd, on the other hand, “listens to the flock, leads the flock, takes care of the flock. And the flock knows how to distinguish between shepherds; it is not mistaken: the flock trusts the good shepherd, trusts Jesus. Only the shepherd who looks like Jesus gives confidence to the flock, because He is the door. The style of Jesus must be the style of the shepherd, there is no other.”
For the pontiff, "One of the signs of the good shepherd is meekness . . . the shepherd is tender, has that tenderness of closeness, knows the sheep by name, one by one, and takes care of each one as if it were the only one.”
Francis ended his homily saying: “This Sunday is a beautiful Sunday, it is a Sunday of peace, it is a Sunday of tenderness, of meekness, because our shepherd takes care of us. ‘The Lord is my shepherd: There is nothing I lack.”