First Reading • Acts 13:14, 43-52
Psalm • Psalm 100:1-2, 3, 5
Second Reading • Revelation 7:9, 14b-17
Gospel • John 10:27-30
Every month, Deacon Tim would make a point of visiting the religious education classes at his parish on Sunday morning so he could get to know the kids.
One Sunday morning he stopped into the fourth-grade class. When he asked if they had any questions, one of the students shot his hand up and asked, “There are so many people in the world, how can God really know all of them? Like you, Mr. Deacon, I bet you don’t know everybody in this church. So how can God know everybody and love them the same?”
Deacon Tim was taken aback by how forcefully a child who wasn’t any more than 10 years old put the question.
“Well, it’s true that we human beings can’t know everybody. Our minds are just too small. But God is not a human being. He doesn’t have a small mind like ours. Just as He can be everywhere at once, He can also see everyone at once. Though it can be hard for us to understand, He does know each of us.”
Deacon Tim went on to say, “Think about it this way. God created each one of us. If you drew a picture, you’d be able to tell it from someone else’s picture, right?”
The boy nodded his head. “So God recognizes each one of us as a work of art that He created. That is how He can know each and every person who has ever lived because He made them all. Not only does He know them, but He cares about them, just like you would know and care about something you made.”
The boy looked as though he were satisfied with the answer, but he went on to ask, “So, if He knows all of us, then He must love us all the same. But if He loves us all the same, what good is that? If He loves me the same as any other kid then how can any of us believe that we’re special?”
Again, Deacon Tim was taken back by how strongly the child put the question, but he took an attempt at answering him.
“It’s not true that God loves us all the same.” When he said that, he noticed that all the kids in the class were surprised. So, he went on to explain. “God does not love us all the same because He did not make us all the same.
Each of us is different. Just as we have fingerprints that are unique to us, we also have personalities and minds that no one else has or will ever have. God created us with these beautiful differences because we are each His work of art.
He knows every detail, right down to how many hairs we have on our head. Jesus told us so. Because of that, He loves you for the unique, special person you are and He loves me for the unique and special person I am.”
Not sure if the children were following along, he asked the class if what he said made any sense to them. They all nodded their heads, and didn’t have any other questions for him. Though Deacon Tim wasn’t expecting such a challenging question, he was reminded that sometimes it takes a child to make us think about our faith in a new and deeper way.
In today’s gospel, Jesus tells us that He’s the Good Shepherd who knows each and every one of His sheep. To everyone else, the sheep might look all the same. But to the shepherd, each sheep is unique. He knows them personally and calls them by name.
When Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd, He is also inviting us to consider ourselves His sheep who listen to His voice and entrust our safety to Him. This call to be like sheep is similar to His call to be like children. He is inviting us to believe that He knows us and to trust that He will never abandon us.
Sometimes the disappointments of life can make us doubt that God cares. But Jesus wants to reassure us that He is always with us and will never abandon us.
We only need to listen to His gentle voice with the confidence of a child and entrust our cares to Him. Then we will know the rest and the peace He promises to give all those who follow Him.
So, every Sunday Jesus calls us together to this place as the sheep of His flock. He speaks to us through His word. And He feeds us His Body and Blood.
It is here where we discover our truest and deepest identity as children of a Father who is good, who knows each of us personally and intimately, and who loves us.
We don’t have to face this world and its challenges alone. We have a Good Shepherd whom we can follow. Even if there are times we get afraid and lose our way, He will always come after us and carry us back home. We can be sure of that, just as we can be sure that He knows us and loves us.
