Praying with icons - December 7, 2025

The Good Shepherd

Karl Rahner said we do not have souls that sometimes get restless, but that our souls

themselves are lonely, caverns thirsting for the infinite, deep wells of restlessness.

Because of this we often find it difficult to concentrate, even to sleep at night.

We go through life-feeling, we're missing out on something, that life is more exciting

fulfilling for others than it is for me. Our achievements rarely satisfy us because we're

too much aware of what we haven't achieved, mischances failed possibilities.

Often we seem to find ourselves inadequate to the task, to even disappoint those we love.

And even when we're blessed, there's no such thing as a clear cut pure joy, but even in our happiest moments there's a shadow, a jealousy, a restlessness.

Ultimately we reach a point in life where there's an ache and a sadness that no one can comfort.

We might be distracted for a time by bright flashy things, so like the way a babysitter tries to

distract a child from their absent mothers. But they will come a time when these things no longer soothe. We begin to miss the one voice and the one presence it can ultimately bring us rest.

On the morning of the resurrection Mary Magdalene meets the newly risen Jesus but doesn't recognize him. He approaches her and asks, "what are you searching for?" She explains she's searching for the dead body of Jesus. He says just one word to her, "Mary." He calls her by name and in that, she not only recognize him, but she hears precisely what a crying baby cannot hear in the voice of the babysitter: the voice of the mother.

This is the mystery we contemplate in the good shepherd.

In the incarnation which we are beginning to prepare for, we have our answer. God joined the flock rather than staying on the other side of the fence.

God loves things by becoming one with them.

Paul can truly say that nothing can separate us in the love of God in Christ Jesus, because God has bound God's own self to us through Christ in an unbelievably intimately way.

Ultimately all are aches for one thing: to hear God call us by name lovingly and individually.

There comes a moment for each of us when nothing will console other than this, hearing our names pronounced by the mouth of God to be called by name by the good shepherd.

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