A Shepherd in Every Way!

Tuesday, January 6, 2026

1 Jn 4:7-10; Mk 6: 34-44

Today’s Gospel highlights Jesus as being the Good Shepherd in every way.

How does Jesus prove to be the ideal shepherd?

1. When Jesus finds people like sheep without a shepherd, especially after the death of John, he takes charge of them. Here we need to understand the heart of Jesus. He looks at a crowd that is totally unattended to – sheep without a shepherd. Hence, when Jesus becomes their shepherd, he becomes so in every way. Indeed, he begins to teach them, but not only to teach.

2. Jesus’ disciples are concerned about his preaching nearing the mealtime. They want the Lord to wrap up his teaching so that the crowd can be dismissed to search for food themselves. In other words, providing for the entire crowd feels like a big responsibility for them that, forgetting the Lord’s presence in their midst, they want him to cut short his teaching. But for Jesus, lack of food should not be an obstacle to God’s mission. If the availability of food can enhance the crowd’s listening, Jesus is ready to perform the miracle too.  

3. When his disciples come up with the suggestion that Jesus should dismiss the crowd to buy food for themselves, Jesus commands them to give them food. Though it seems that Jesus is asking his disciples to do the impossible because they claim, ‘Even two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for all to eat,’ he wants them to self-examine, ‘How many loaves do I have?’ Without a clear plan and will, Jesus’ request appears impossible. But becoming a shepherd like Jesus means thinking like the Good Shepherd.

4. When the disciples want Jesus to accept their suggestion, they reveal a restrictive understanding of who a shepherd should be. In this case, they want Jesus to act like a part-time shepherd who will teach the crowd before mealtimes, and it is not his responsibility once it is time for food. Nevertheless, Jesus does not separate the spiritual from the material. For him, feeding his listeners is as important as teaching them. For the Good Shepherd, shepherding is to take care of anything that hurts his flock. 

5. By this miracle, Jesus demonstrates the performative ability of God’s word. By teaching his disciples to ask themselves, ‘How many loaves do I have?’ Jesus wants all his listeners to do likewise. After listening to Jesus, our hearts must be stirred to think from the point of view of our hungry and needy neighbors. By asking ourselves, ‘What do I have to set before my needy other?’ we allow God’s word to form our hearts. If charitable love becomes a collective virtue of a society, then we can address the world’s poverty and hunger.

Let us pray that we may become the Good Shepherds following the model of Jesus. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar