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The Shepherd Knows His Sheep by Name
Where We Are
Alleluia! Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter continues the Good Shepherd theme from yesterday's Sunday Gospel. The weekday reading returns to John 10:1-10, allowing us to sit with these images for a second day. The shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. The sheep follow because they know his voice. In Acts, Peter has a vision at Joppa that will change the course of Christian history: a sheet descending from heaven filled with animals that the Jewish law declares unclean. "What God has made clean, you must not call common." The gates of the sheepfold are about to be thrown open wider than anyone imagined.
The Word
In Acts, Peter goes up to the rooftop to pray and falls into a trance. He sees a great sheet descending from heaven, filled with all kinds of animals. A voice says, "Rise, Peter. Kill and eat." Peter protests. The voice responds, "What God has made clean, you must not call common." Messengers arrive from Cornelius, a Roman centurion. Peter goes to his house and sees the Holy Spirit fall on the Gentiles just as it fell at Pentecost. "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people?" In John's Gospel, Jesus says, "The shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. He walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice."
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Reflect
"He calls his own sheep by name." This is not a God who manages populations. This is a God who knows individuals.
In the ancient world, shepherds did not drive their flocks from behind; they walked ahead and the sheep followed by voice recognition. Each sheep had a name. The shepherd's relationship with each one was personal, daily, and intimate. Jesus is saying: this is how I relate to you. Not as a crowd, but as a person. I know your name.
Peter's vision at Joppa extends this intimacy to people no one expected. The Gentiles, previously considered "unclean" and outside the covenant, are now included. "What God has made clean, you must not call common." The Good Shepherd's flock is larger than the Jewish community ever imagined. The gate is open to Romans, Greeks, and eventually to every nation on earth.
This was perhaps the most controversial development in the early Church. Peter himself resisted it, three times refusing the heavenly command, just as he had three times denied Jesus. But the Spirit was clear: God shows no partiality. Cornelius and his household receive the Holy Spirit, and Peter cannot withhold baptism from those whom God has already accepted.
The connection between the two readings is profound. The Good Shepherd who calls his sheep by name calls sheep from every fold. The voice they recognize is not limited by language, culture, or background. It is the voice of love itself, and it speaks to the heart in every tongue.
Living It
Listen for the Shepherd's voice today. He calls you by name, not by your title, your role, or your usefulness. Spend time in prayer simply being known. Then consider Peter's lesson: Is there anyone you have been calling "common" or "unclean," someone you have excluded from God's love in your mind? The vision at Joppa reminds us that God's flock is bigger than our categories. Open your heart to someone you have been keeping at a distance. The Good Shepherd has other sheep who are not yet of this fold.
Prayer
Good Shepherd, you know us by name. You walk ahead of us and we follow your voice. We are grateful to be known so intimately by the God of the universe. Expand our understanding of your flock. Help us see, as Peter learned, that what you have made clean we must not call common. Break down the walls we build between people, and let your voice reach every sheep, in every fold, in every nation. Alleluia. Amen.
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