Jn 10:22-30
22The feast of the Dedication was then taking place in Jerusalem. It was winter. 23And Jesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon. 24So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me. 26But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep. 27My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. 30The Father and I are one.”
A RELATIONSHIP OF DEEP INTIMACY: Shepherds in rocky Palestine, where Jesus lived and preached, and its neighboring countries hold three things dearly: water, their tents, and their sheep. The shepherd not only guides the sheep but is almost a “father” to the flock. He gives a name to each one; he allows them to sleep close to him and to drink from his kettle of water.
Jesus draws a picture from the shepherd’s life to illustrate a lesson about his relationship with his disciples: a relationship of intimacy, of service, and of offering. Jesus “knows his sheep”: he is related with his disciples in an intimate love. They, in turn, “hear his voice”: they listen to and obey his commandments as their personal response to him.
No one snatches the believers away from Jesus. Because this union of Jesus and his disciples is willed and caused by the Father, no power, no evil, no suffering can break the bond between them. St. Paul puts it emphatically: “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39).