Good Shepherd calls by name

In our wildest dreams none of us can imagine having to offer up our lives for someone else, whether it be for a spouse or for a child. While television dramas provide a plethora of scenarios when this might happen, the news also regularly reports of parents saving their children from flaming homes or raging currents. They are not always successful.

War brings an incomprehensible and tragic loss of life, military and civilian. Few Australian or NZ families of the early and middle years of the last century failed to be impacted by war fatalities. No one, rich or poor, educated or unschooled, farmer or businessman escaped. When such tragedies envelope whole townships, cities, states, countries and peoples the immensity is plainly overwhelming.

Less than 2 years ago I stood at the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium as the last post played. There were people present from across our planet, each sharing this poignant moment, remembering those who died on the battlefields of Europe. People nearby were shedding tears. It was extraordinarily moving.

Further east at Gallipoli 5,833 Australian soldiers died. A further 1,985 died of wounds, bringing Australia’s total losses on those shores to 7,818. 19,441 Australian soldiers were wounded. New Zealand lost 2,721 men and 4,752 were wounded.

Their motives for fighting a war far from home were complex and there was certainly a strong desire for adventure and to serve God, King and Country, and if called upon, they would lay down their lives.

One of scripture’s strongest images is of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. It is he who calls his sheep by name, who seeks them out when they are lost, who when they hurt carries them back to the fold, and who – when all else fails – lays down his life for his flock.

This Sunday’s Gospel of the Good Shepherd coincides with ANZAC Day. The image of our men and women leaving these verdant, beloved shores to enter into the hell-holes of war, and that of Jesus as the kind, loving shepherd is incongruous, but is critical is coming to understand the desire of these young soldiers of freedom to protect their homes and loved ones. Though so many died on foreign soil, the ultimate sacrifice is anof love of a monumental scale. And though we have acknowledged that love with physical memorials, the Menin Gate being a most famous example, the most resonant and lasting is the freedom we now possess.

Few of us will be called to lay down our lives for those we love, but we are most definitely called to love deeply, to give of ourselves, so that the lives we live will matter, will have meaning and purpose, to mirror and model the Good Shepherd.

This Sunday, the 4th Sunday of Easter is also called Vocations Sunday.
, Menin