Summer, Francesco Bassano; 1577

MEDITATIONS ON Good Shepherd Sunday by Father John Tauler, O.P. (Source):

Now let us ask why our Lord so often calls His friends sheep. Because sheep have two qualities that our Lord especially loves, namely, innocence and gentle meekness. We read in the Apocalypse that the pure and guileless “follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Apoc 14:4). The meek and humble of heart are near to God, and they hear His voice; proud and haughty men never hear it.

When the wind howls and the doors and windows clatter, one can hardly hear the voice of man. As to the voice of God, that fatherly, whispered, secret word, uttered in the inmost depths of your soul—if you will hear it, you must be deaf to all the roar of the world without, and hush all the voices of your own inner life. You must yield yourself up like a meek and gentle little sheep, confess your sins, and, all humbly hushed and quieted, hearken to this voice of God; it is denied to all who are not thus made like unto sheep. It was to His sheep that the Lord spoke, as we read in the lessons of this night’s office: “I will give you a lovely land, the goodly inheritance of the army of the Gentiles. And I said: You shall call me Father and shall not cease to walk after me.” (Jer 3:19.)

And what is this lovely land which He has promised His chosen sheep, His beloved friends? That land is their own body. Our bodies are by nature full of concupiscence and rebellious, but He enables His friends to reduce them to obedience, and they find much joy in compelling them to do their will. What was once waste and barren is now become a fertile and welltilled land, in which one sows and reaps in all abundance.

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