TRUE SHEEP

        We sinners often consider ourselves as lost sheep.  We actually fall more under the category of goats.

         In the Gospels, Christ describes two kinds of sheep.  One who has entered the sheepfold with Him and the others who are still outside the sheepfold.  Note that both of them are described as sheep. 

        The ones inside the sheepfold are those who have sought Christ and have lived a life of humility, as their Founder and Head had done.  The ones outside are those who are still assiduously seeking for the door to the sheepfold but have not found it.  Christ calls them sheep because, since they are truly seeking, they will eventually find.  Thus, they are already referred to as sheep. 

        Those who are doing little or nothing at all in living a life of humility but instead are living lives of worldly pleasure and sin are referred to as goats. 

        Christ has said that both the sheep inside and those outside know His voice and He knows them by name.  Since they are those who had obeyed the commands of Christ to be meek and humble as He is, or those who will eventually be meek and humble, God had already written their names in the book of life.  Since He wrote their names, He would know their names.  But the names of the goats are not written, so Christ does not know them.  And, truly, when they are face to face with Christ, He would say:  "I know you not." 

        We must constantly seek the way to holiness, the way to God's kingdom.  Only then we shall find the door to the sheepfold.  And, seeing the door, we may now knock and it shall be opened to us. 

St. Thomas Aquinas

(08-07-10)