My Dear People, 

Jesus solves in His person an apparent contradiction in Ezekiel 24 about the famous prophecy of the new shepherd of Israel. Ezekiel says both God and David will be shepherds of Israel, and yet there will be only one shepherd—two natures in one person. Jesus is both the divine and the Davidic Shepherd.

When Our Lord declares: “all who come before me are thieves and robbers,” He may well be referring to the majority of those who had claimed leadership over Israel since the deposition of the last reigning son of David, Zedekiah, in 587 BC (see Kings 25:7). Many of these leaders had questionable if not outright illegitimate pedigrees. 

The Levite clan of the Maccabees had taken over in the mid-100’s and set themselves up as kings of Israel although they were not of the line of David. Herod the Great, who was only half-Jewish, took over Israel by political manipulation of the Roman authorities and established a dynasty that had even less legitimacy than the Maccabees. Meanwhile, the high priesthood had been corrupted (at least since 175 BC), when the high priest Onias III was ousted by this political maneuvering and replaced first by his brother, Jason, and then by Menelaus, a Benjaminite (2 Macc. 3-4).

So, in the lifetime of Our Lord, the kingship was held by pretenders. The high priesthood was held by presenters, and various false, self-proclaimed messiahs arose and led unsuccessful rebellions. In the vacuum of the religious leadership left by these self-serving, competing claimants, the school of the Pharisees arose, which trained scholars in the law of Moses to teach the common people in the synagogues throughout the land. 

But as well-meaning as the Pharisees were, they did not have any biblical claim to authority. No prophets had even promised that self-appointed scholars of the law would arise to save Israel in the last days. All these false leaders, intent too often on enriching themselves at the expense of the people of Israel, may be whom Jesus has in mind as the “thieves and robbers” who have come before Him. 

Nonetheless, the poor common folk of Israel knew that these pretenders were illegitimate and not the fulfillment of the prophecies. Now Jesus of Nazareth, the true heir of David (Matt. 1), had returned to shepherd His people, as Ezekiel had promised. 

Jesus comes not to “steal, slaughter, and destroy,” but that they “might have life, and have it more abundantly.” Another translation could be, “I have come that they may have life and have it excessively” (John 10:10). This statement taps into a theme in the Gospel of John, that of the abundance that Jesus comes to provide. This theme is announced in the first chapter of the gospel, where it says of Jesus, “From His abundance we have all received grace upon grace.” (John 1:16). It is visibly demonstrated in the abundance of wine at Cana (John 2) and the excessive supply of the bread and fish on the mountain (John 6). Jesus has come that His sheep may abound in life, experiencing a fullness unlike anything else.

Too often we live the Christian life in a constrained way, thinking perhaps that the moral law of God puts “limits” on our lifestyle. This is an incorrect way of thinking. In reality, sin constrains our lifestyle and leads to enslavement (addiction) to various behaviors or pleasures that results in both physical and spiritual death. The life that Jesus offers us is infused with meaning, with joy, with love, and with the divine presence. It’s a kind of living by comparison with which anything else seems like a kind of death rather than life. 

True life begins with Jesus.  A life of dissipation and capitulation to our physical desires is actually a kind of living death. Maybe that’s why zombie movies are so popular these days. Folks feel like zombies, living an empty “life” because they are spiritually dead. 

Let’s pray that during this Easter Season, we understand better that the life of sin is no life at all, and that the life in Christ is the beginning (even now) of eternal life. 

[comments from Reflection on the Sunday Mass Reading for Year A by John Bergsma]

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Fr. Vincent Clemente