One Flock, One Shepherd
“For the Souls in Purgatory – Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord”
John 10:16
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.
Grace Prayed For
Lord, give us a heart as wide as yours — one that rejoices in the scattered gathering, that looks for you in unexpected faces and unfamiliar places.
Reflection
This single verse has generated centuries of theological reflection, and it continues to challenge our comfortable categories.
Jesus is speaking to Jewish listeners about Gentiles — the great ‘others’ of the ancient religious world. But the principle reaches beyond that historical context. God’s love and God’s call extend beyond any fence we build around them. There are sheep hearing the shepherd’s voice in places and traditions and lives that lie outside our particular fold.
This is not a counsel of theological indifferentism — as if it doesn’t matter what we believe or how we live. It is a counsel of humility: we do not possess God. We receive God. And God’s willingness to call and to draw is not bounded by the membership rolls of our community.
For retreat groups, this verse invites a particular kind of examination. Where have we encountered the shepherd’s work in unexpected places — in the lives of people outside our tradition, in moments we wouldn’t have labeled ‘spiritual,’ in the wisdom of those we might have been tempted to dismiss? Where has God been present and active well ahead of our arrival?
The movement toward ‘one flock, one shepherd’ is not the absorption of all difference into uniformity. It is the gathering of genuine diversity under a single source of life and love. The flock that results will be richer, stranger, more beautiful than any of us imagined when we were tending only the sheep we recognized.
Who is the unexpected sheep in your life — the person through whom God has spoken to you in a way you didn’t expect? Offer a prayer for them today. And perhaps tell them.
When Time Allows Reflect on the Posts in Library and Musings
Sharing
Jesus last words on Earth were to his disciples, can be found in Matthew Chap 28 when Jesus told his disciples, “Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Jesus calls all of us to share in his redemptive mission here on Earth. I would ask you to share this Scripture reflection with your family, your friends and your acquaintances, and then share it with a couple of individuals that you may may not be comfortable sharing with, keeping in mind always the words of Jesus, And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age
Author was assisted by AI in the drafting of this Post