Few images of Jesus speak to us as powerfully as the Good Shepherd, Jesus carrying a lamb across his shoulders, tenderly holding it close, the two front legs in one hand, the two rear legs in the other. There is something about this image that draws us in immediately. We instinctively recognize ourselves in that lamb. It speaks of tenderness, care, and compassion, the kind that doesn’t stand at a distance but gets close, bends down, and lifts us up.

When life grows heavy with crosses and hardship, this image reassures us: we are not abandoned. It is beautifully captured in the Footprints poem, which concludes with the Lord saying: “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.” That is the kind of shepherd Jesus is, present not just in the easy seasons, but most especially in the difficult ones.

Today’s readings invite us to place our full trust in that shepherd. Psalm 23, written many centuries before Christ, still draws us naturally to him. When everything is going well, its opening words ring with quiet confidence:

But the Psalm doesn’t stop there. It speaks honestly about the harder moments too – the dark valleys we all pass through – and tells us what our attitude should be even then:

It is worth noting that in the catacombs of Rome, where early Christians gathered during times of fierce persecution, the most common image found on the walls is this very one: the Good Shepherd carrying a sheep on his shoulders. In their darkest hour, facing imprisonment and death, those early Christians found their courage in this image. So can we.

To understand the depth of what Jesus is saying in today’s Gospel, it helps to know how shepherding worked in Palestine. At night, sheep from many different flocks would be brought together into a single sheepfold, a circular stone enclosure with one narrow opening, guarded through the night. Come morning, each flock would follow only its own shepherd, recognising his unique call. There was a real and personal bond between shepherd and sheep.

This is the bond Jesus holds up as a picture of what he wants with each of us. If a human being and an animal can share such closeness and trust, how much more does Jesus desire that intimacy with us? That bond grows through prayer, through time spent daily in his presence, listening for his voice amid all the noise of life.

Jesus also tells us in today’s Gospel that he is the gate – and that those who enter through him will be saved. That salvation was won on the cross. As St. Peter writes: “He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.”

We are those sheep. And he is always, faithfully, our shepherd.