We are the sheepfold of Christ

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

IN his effort to convey very important truths of faith about us, Christ used literary devices, figures and images that we can easily identify and relate. It’s something that we should also do in our effort to carry out our Christian duty of evangelization. We need to see to it that we are effective in connecting with the people, in putting ourselves in the same wavelength and on the same page as they are when we preach or catechize.

One such image is that of the sheep and sheepfold. This was used in that gospel parable where Christ said that we are his sheep and that he is the door to the sheepfold. (cfr. Jn 10,1-10) The lesson of the parable is quite clear. We need to be always with Christ if we indeed would like to belong to Christ’s sheepfold and to God’s people and family as we should.

We have to be wary when we would just let ourselves be guided and led by our different human ways. While it is unavoidable that we always have to resort to some human means, we should never forget that everything should be done under the guidance of Christ.

For this, we always have to remember that Christ is always with us. He is actually intervening in our life in an abiding way. He is never indifferent to us. In fact, he always looks at us with great love and concern, and is ever ready to give us the help we need in any situation, especially when we find ourselves in great difficulties or, worse, when we get confused and lost through sin.

We just should train ourselves to be constantly aware of this truth of our faith to such an extent that whatever we do, we should do it always with Christ and for Christ. That is the ideal condition of our life, given our dignity as God’s image and likeness, children of his, sharers of his divine life and nature even while we are still here on earth. Let’s remember that the only thing we can do outside of Christ is to fall into sin sooner or later.

We need to learn as early as possible to come up with some effective plan of life which would always put us in an abiding and intimate relationship with Christ. And this, done the earlier the better, since with all the rapid developments in the world today, the possibility of us forgetting, ignoring and taking Christ for granted is very high.

We cannot deny that we are easily seduced by the many worldly, if not sinful, things around, desensitizing us from our need for Christ and spoiling our carnal selves while impoverishing our more important spiritual and supernatural dimensions of our life.

In this regard, the different levels of the Church should be very active, sparing no effort to evangelize the people. Hopefully the families and other institutions of our society can better respond to their duty to evangelize those under them or in the sphere of their influence.

It’s important, for example, that the families get better equipped to carry out this responsibility because it’s there where children are formed. The schools too should give due attention to this grave duty, always highlighting the spiritual and religious dimension of whatever knowledge and skills they are imparting. In fact, it’s the spiritual and religious dimensions that should always be given emphasis no matter how technical the education given in schools may be.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com