Cardinal Cantalamessa’s third Lenten sermon: I am the Good Shepherd

By Sr. Francine-Marie Cooper

“I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." (Jn 10:11)

In his third sermon for Lent 2024, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, the Preacher of the Papal Household, meditated on these words of Jesus from John’s Gospel.

Cardinal Cantalamessa explained the context of this passage about the Good Shepherd. It is the discussion with “the Jews” which takes place on the occasion of the Feast of Tabernacles.

The shepherd in biblical history

We must understand how shepherds were perceived in Jesus’ time, the Cardinal said.

“In the beginning Israel was a people of nomadic shepherds.”

This society did not look upon the sheep solely as a means of income, he said. The shepherds spent day after day alone with the sheep.

They built up a personal relationship with them. “This explains why,” Cardinal Cantalamessa added, “to express His relationship with humanity, God used this image, which has now become ambiguous.”

Kings and priests and leaders in general were later referred to as shepherds.

As these did not always tend well to their people, the image of the bad shepherd made its appearance alongside that of the good shepherd.

In the book of the prophet Ezekiel, God promises to take care of His flock: “The lost I will search out, the strays I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, and the sick I will heal.”

Shepherd and sheep

The Cardinal explained how every shepherd is also a sheep of the great shepherd.

“The pastor of the Church is also a ‘wounded healer,’ a sick person who must help others to be healed.”

Cardinal Cantalamessa went on to define the “main disease” for which we need treatment: Fear.

“Psychology and psychoanalysis try to heal people’s fears and neuroses by analyzing them and bringing them from the unconscious to the conscious,” he noted. “The Gospel adds something that science cannot give.”

Cardinal Cantalamessa called Christ the “solvent” of all fear who has said to His disciples: “Do not be afraid, I have overcome the world.”

Only God can save us in this violent and mad world that we live in, he said.

Laying down His life for the sheep

The Cardinal pointed out, “Never before had it been said in the Bible that the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.”

This is the most consoling thing Jesus could say to His disciples, since “Jesus promised to do it and He did!”

By taking our fears upon Himself, Cardinal Cantalamessa said, “Jesus also redeemed our fears and anxieties. ‘By His wounds, we were healed,’ the Scripture says of Him.”

And added the Cardinal, “He didn’t just give us the example of how to overcome anguish; He gave us the means to overcome it: His presence and His grace.”

Cardinal Cantalamessa spoke finally of the martyrs who have made this belief a tangible experience.

They welcomed martyrdom without fear and trusting that Jesus was with them.

Wounded healers

Although it may not always be within our power to free ourselves of fear and anguish, the Cardinal said, it may be in our power to free someone else.

“Whether pastors or simple believers, we must be wounded healers, who, nevertheless, can heal others.”