Jesus, the Good Shepherd who never abandons His sheep

Fr David Howell• May 11, 2025

“No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:30)

In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus describes the powerful protection of his Father’s hand. We can trust that in heaven we will be utterly safe in the Father’s embrace, and with his hands he “will wipe away every tear” from our eyes (Revelations 7:17).
To arrive in the Father’s embrace, we must first put ourselves into the hands of our Good Shepherd, Jesus, which have the same divine power: “no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28). The Father “has given all things into his hand” (John 3:35), so we can rest in Jesus. The only person who can pry us from the hands of Jesus is our own self, through our own sin: if we are faithful he will never let go of us, but he respects our free choices, whatever they be. Our Good Shepherd carries us in his hands but he never coerces us.

Nor do the pierced hands of the Risen Jesus protect us from all pain and sorrow. We must endure wounds as he did until we reach his Father’s house, but ours, like his, can become glorious scars. If we let him hold us, he will keep leading us into deeper depths of the living water of the Holy Spirit, now and into eternity: “he will guide them to springs of living water” (Revelations 7:17).

Let us use our own hands to wash our baptismal robes “white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelations 7:14), constantly entrusting ourselves to his healing mercy through the sacraments, especially confession, which renews our baptism. Then in heaven our hands will be full: we will  hold the palm branches of victory (Revelations 7:9).
We touch the hands of Jesus the Good Shepherd today through the sacraments but also, in a special way, through the Successor of Peter, Pope Leo XIV, our chief shepherd. Let us give thanks for his election and pray for him, that his hands will bless us, teach us and guide us to Christ.