This morning of Good Shepherd Sunday, I was reading a review in the newspaper about an exhibit at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park (in San Diego) entitled, “7 billion Others.”  The exhibit consists of photographs of faces of people from all over the world and a story they tell in response to questions about topics such as love, fear, happiness and family.  One person responded, “I’m afraid of man, human unkindness.  I’m afraid of the behavior of mobs, the cruelty in all of us.”  This struck me as a poignant statement that probably resonates in many of us given the events we confront each day in the news.  It is frightening to see how cruel and vicious we can be to one another.

Today in the gospel, Jesus reveals and proclaims, “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.  These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.” (Jn 10,14ff)  When the Father and Jesus look at humankind, they see sheep, for we are all created with a “sheepish” nature.  God created us to be one flock with one shepherd.  The “sheepish” nature that God gave us is one of gentleness, innocence, purity, compassion, trust, obedience, kindness, graciousness, humility, docility, patience, loyalty, faithfulness, generosity and respect.  It is the nature of children, children of God.  When we maintain our sheepish nature we can easily live together as one flock.  Jesus, the good shepherd, knows who we are in truth.  He knows our goodness and our beauty.  He is the image for us of the perfection of that truth of our human nature, full of goodness and beauty.  If we know the good shepherd, we will know the truth of our human nature to be sheep in the one flock of the shepherd.  If we all lived in the truth of our sheepish nature we would have nothing to fear from “the Other.”  We could truly live together in peace.

Unfortunately, there are sheep that put on wolves’ clothing.  Sin makes us savage.  Vice turns us vicious.  If we stray from following the way of the good shepherd and follow the way of the flesh, our disordered desires turn our sheepish nature into a wolfish nature that leads us to lust, greed, envy, pride, gluttony, anger, hatred, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, rivalry, jealousy, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions and the like (Gal 5,19ff), we are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite, insolent, haughty, boastful, ingenious in their wickedness, and rebellious toward their parents, senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. (Rom 1,29ff) .  This wolfish nature awakens the “cruelty in all of us” that is a genuine cause for fear.  Jesus tells us that the good shepherd does not “run away from” the wolves but he confronts the wolf and drives him away from the flock.  Jesus, the good shepherd, wants to drive away our wolfish nature and restore us to our sheepish nature.  This is why the good shepherd “lays down his life for the sheep” (Jn 10,11) so that he can free us from the savageness of sin and the viciousness of vice and restore us in grace to a more gracious nature.  “This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.”  (Jn 10,17)  Jesus takes upon himself our wolfish nature, lays it down, gets rid of it, and takes up again a new life of grace to be a sheep once again.

All of us have a wolf suit hanging in our closet that we put on from time to time.  We all have sinned and fallen short of our original glory (Rom 3,23).  There is cruelty in all of us.  However, we are all saved by the grace of the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep to free them of the wolf and restore them to the gracious nature of the sheep.  The good shepherd does not want to lose any of his sheep to the wolves.  He knows there is a sheep still hiding under the wolf clothing.  “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.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.  The Father and I are one.” (Jn 10,27-30)  No matter how long we have worn the wolf suit, Jesus, the good shepherd, will never give up on us and will seek us out and bring us home to the sheepfold.

The photographer who created the exhibition, “7 billion Others”, reveals about himself, “I’m somebody who is looking for the meaning of life, why I’m here.  This is the kind of question we put (to people).”  Jesus, the good shepherd, is the one who has the meaning of life for us.  We will find our meaning in the sound of his voice, in following him, in being sheep, living in the sheepfold of the Father, being pastured on life-giving words and teaching, drinking from the living waters of truth.  Our photographer found that in the thousands of interviews he and his collaborators conducted, “love is the most important word in our language.  Even if you go to Rwanda, or Syria, or you go to Libya, people who are very bad soldiers, who have killed a lot of people, they speak about love.  It’s funny; we all need love.”  God is love.  We all need God and his grace.  Jesus, the good shepherd, will lead us to the Father, and there we will find our meaning, our hope and our rest.  Listen for his voice.