"Ako amo ang Maayo nga Manugbantay"

Ebanghelyo subong nga Adlaw (Juan 10:11-18)

"Ako amo ang maayo nga manugbantay sang mga karnero. Ang maayo nga manugbantay desidido nga magpanginmatay para sa iya mga karnero.

Indi siya pareho sa tawo nga ginasuholan lang nga magbantay. Kay ang tawo nga ginasuholan lang nagapalagyo kon makita na niya nga nagaabot ang nagapanukob nga sapat, kag bayaan lang niya ang mga karnero. Gani magalalapta ang mga karnero kag ang iban sa ila tukbon.

Ang sinuhulan nagapalagyo, tungod kay sinuhulan man lang siya kag bali wala lang sa iya kon ano ang matabo sa mga karnero.

Pero ako amo ang maayo nga manugbantay sang mga karnero. Kon paano ang pagkakilala sa akon sang Amay kag ang akon pagkakilala sa iya, pareho man sina ang akon pagkakilala sa akon mga karnero kag ang ila pagkakilala sa akon. Kag ihatag ko ang akon kabuhi para sa ila.

May iban pa man ako nga mga karnero nga wala diri sa inyo grupo bilang mga Judio. Dapat pasudlon ko man sila. Magapamati man sila sa akon, kag ang tanan nga nagapamati sa akon mangin isa lang ka grupo nga may isa ka manugbantay.

"Ginapalangga ako sang Amay tungod kay ginahatag ko ang akon kabuhi para sa ila, kag pagkatapos mabuhi man ako liwat.

Wala sing may makapatay sa akon kon indi ko ini pag-itugot. Pero kabubut-on ko nga ginahatag ang akon kabuhi. Pagusto ako sa paghatag sini, kag pagusto man ako sa pagbawi sini. Amo ini ang ginsiling sang Amay sa akon."

Prayers:

"Lord Jesus, you are the Good Shepherd who keeps watch over our lives. May I be ever attentive to your voice and submit fully to your wise rule for my life. Draw me near to you that I may always find peace and joy in your presence.”

***

Reflection of the Daily Gospel:

Do you know the peace and security of the Good Shepherd who watches over his own? The Old Testament often speaks of God as shepherd of his people, Israel. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want (Psalm 23:1). Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! (Psalm 80:1) We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture (Psalm 100:3). The Messiah is also pictured as the shepherd of God's people: He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms (Isaiah 40:11). Jesus says he is the Good Shepherd who will risk his life to seek out and save the stray sheep (Matthew 18:12, Luke 15:4). He is the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls (1 Peter 2:25).

Jesus made three promises to his followers. He promised them everlasting life. If they accept him and follow him, they will have the life of God in them. Jesus also promised them a life that would know no end. Death would not be the end but the beginning; they would know the glory of indestructible life. Jesus promised a life that was secure. Jesus said that nothing would snatch them out of his hand, not even sorrow and death, since he is everlasting life itself. Our lives are safe in his hands.

The words which Jesus spoke upset many of the Jewish leaders. How could he speak with the same authority which God spoke and claim to be equal with God? He must either be insane or divine. Unfortunately some thought he was mad even though he cured a man who was blind from birth. We are faced with the same choice. Either Jesus is who he claims to be – the Son of God and Savior of the world – or the world's greatest deluder! We cannot be indifferent to his claim. For those who accept him as Lord and Savior he offers the peace and security of unending life and joy with God. Do you know the peace and security of a life fully submitted to Christ?

Cyril of Alexander, a 5th century church father comments on Jesus as our Good Shepherd:

“He shows in what manner a shepherd may be proved good; and He teaches that he must be prepared to give up his life fighting in defense of his sheep, which was fulfilled in Christ. For man has departed from the love of God, and fallen into sin, and because of this was, I say, excluded from the divine abode of paradise, and when he was weakened by that disaster, he yielded to the devil tempting him to sin, and death following that sin he became the prey of fierce and ravenous wolves. But after Christ was announced as the True Shepherd of all men, He laid down his life for us (1 John 3:16), fighting for us against that pack of inhuman beasts. He bore the Cross for us, that by His own death he might destroy death. He was condemned for us, that He might deliver all of us from the sentence of punishment: the tyranny of sin being overthrown by our faith: fastening to the Cross the decree that stood against us, as it is written (Colossians 2:14). Therefore as the father of sin had as it were shut up the sheep in hell, giving them to death to feed on, as it is written in the psalms (Ps. Xlviii.16), He died for us as truly Good, and truly our Shepherd, so that the dark shadow of death driven away He might join us to the company of the blessed in heaven; and in exchange for abodes that lie far in the depths of the pit, and in the hidden places of the sea, grant us mansions in His Father’s House above. Because of this he says to us in another place: Fear not, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you a kingdom (Luke 12:32)."

Do you listen attentively to the voice of the Good Shepherd and obey his word?