The Transfer of the Precious Relics of our holy Father John Chrysostom.
Polyeleos Feast.
Hebrews 7:26-8:2; John 10:9-16.
Read John 10:9-16
Jesus is the King of the universe. However, He did not come to tell His disciples that He is a king and demand to be served. Instead, He tells them that He is the good shepherd. Shepherds were humble workers who cared for their messy sheep. Jesus likens Himself not to a for-hire shepherd who does not care about the sheep entrusted to him but rather to a good shepherd Who lays down His life for the sheep. Being a king, Jesus did not demand to be served but rather served those entrusted to Him.
We are members of Christ’s flock! We are His sheep! We should rejoice that we have the kind of Shepherd Who cares about us to the point of laying down His own life for us. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells a parable about repentance: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Lk. 15:4-7).
Jesus is the kind of shepherd Who lays down His life for His sheep, Who searches for His lost sheep and rejoices over its return. When we fall into sin, Jesus seeks us out to call us to repentance. He wants us to turn away from our wrongful thinking and behaviors and come back to Him. As we begin to prepare ourselves for the Great Fast and consider our own sinfulness, let us remember that Jesus is seeking us.