The First Reading is a severe warning to the shepherds of Israel.
They were meant to care for God’s people.
Instead, they cared for themselves.
They fed themselves while the sheep went hungry.
They failed to strengthen the weak, heal the sick, seek the lost, and bring back those who had wandered.
So God says: “Behold, I myself will search for my sheep.”
That promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
He is the Good Shepherd.
He does not use the sheep for Himself.
He gives Himself for the sheep.
He seeks the sinner. He heals the wounded. He carries the lost home.
Every Christian shepherd must therefore learn his ministry from the Heart of Christ.
Saint John Eudes understood this deeply.
He lived at a time when the Church desperately needed holy priests and renewed Christian life.
He devoted himself to preaching, forming clergy, calling sinners to conversion, and spreading devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
For Saint John Eudes, the Heart of Jesus was not merely an object of private devotion.
It revealed the love of the Good Shepherd.
A Heart burning with love for the Father.
A Heart filled with mercy for sinners.
A Heart willing to give everything for their salvation.
The Gospel shows us that same generous Heart.
A landowner goes repeatedly into the marketplace looking for labourers.
Morning. Noon. Afternoon. Even at the final hour.
God never grows tired of calling people into His vineyard.
Some serve Him from childhood.
Others return after years away.
Some find Him only late in life.
But no one should say, “It is too late for me.”
While life remains, the call to conversion remains.
The difficulty comes when those who arrived first resent the generosity shown to those who came last.
They have forgotten that grace is a gift.
We cannot place God in our debt.
We do not earn heaven as wages.
Everything begins with mercy.
My brothers and sisters, these readings ask us two questions.
If God has entrusted anyone to our care, are we feeding them or feeding ourselves?
And if God shows mercy to someone we think undeserving, can we rejoice?
Ask Saint John Eudes to obtain for us a heart like the Heart of Jesus.
A heart that seeks the lost.
A heart that serves without counting the cost.
A heart that never envies grace.
For the Good Shepherd has come looking for His sheep.
And even at the final hour, He is still calling labourers into His vineyard.
St. Mary's, St. John Bosco and St. Edward's 