I Am the Gate
“For the Souls in Purgatory – Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord”
John 10:9-10
I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.
Grace Prayed For
Lord, lead us through you into the fullness of life you have promised — life not merely survived or managed, but lived abundantly.
Reflection
The image of the gate deserves its own meditation before we move to the shepherd.
A gate is a threshold — the point of entry and exit that determines what happens on both sides. In the sheepfold of Jesus’s day, the gate was often the shepherd himself: he would lie down across the opening at night, his body becoming the door. Nothing could enter or leave without going through him.
Jesus uses this image to make a contrast. There are those who come not as gate or shepherd but as thieves — who enter the human experience by other means, with other motives, looking to take rather than give. And the damage they do is real: stealing, slaughtering, destroying. These are strong words. Jesus is not speaking abstractly. The false shepherds of his time — and ours — genuinely harm the people entrusted to them.
Against this, the gate that is Christ opens into life: abundant life, overflowing life, life that comes in and goes out freely and finds pasture.
‘Abundant’ here is the Greek word perisson — more than enough, exceeding what is required, overflowing the measure. This is not a modest promise. Jesus is not offering adequate existence or sustainable management of a difficult situation. He is offering a quality of life that exceeds what we have imagined as possible.
For our groups: Where in your experience has following Christ opened into abundance — into more life, more love, more freedom than you expected? And where are you still standing at the gate, hesitating to come in and go out freely?
The gate is open. Pasture is on the other side.
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