Of Infinite Worth

This past Friday, I went to the store to pick up a few things. I remembered to use all the advice that my mom taught me about how to be a smart shopper. I bought the value pack of toothpaste. I made sure to pick up the off-brand trash bags. In the produce section, I selected the bag of salad greens with the latest sell-by date.

We are all used to making value judgments about things. We do it every day, choosing this and not that, preferring one thing over another. We even make the same kind of judgments about people. We make decisions about which friendships to invest in, which family members to consult for advice, which business relationships to cultivate. As limited people, we have limited time, which means we have to make choices about who is worthy of our time and attention, and who isn’t.

In today’s first reading, Peter addresses the Sanhedrin, the council of elders that was the highest authority in Jewish life. Peter had been arrested and brought before them because of someone who, along with Peter himself, would not have normally warranted their time and attention: a crippled man whom Peter had healed in the name of Jesus. This reading shows us the how the dynamic of religious authority was shifting after the Resurrection: the powerful Sanhedrin was losing its influence and being overshadowed by Peter, this poor fisherman from Galilee, by the crippled man who had been miraculously healed, and above all by Jesus, the itinerant preacher whom the Sanhedrin had condemned to death but who now had been raised.

In the Gospel today, Jesus declares himself to be the Good Shepherd, the true shepherd of the Lord’s flock, whose authority comes not from any human source but from God himself. He proves this authority by willingly laying down his life for his sheep; for that reason, Jesus has a special claim to our time and attention. As the Son of God, his self-sacrifice was of infinite worth in God’s eyes. Its value for us, therefore, is also infinite, the only way to be saved, as Peter tells the Sanhedrin. Amid all of the relationships we have in life, no one else has died for us, and even more importantly, no one else can ensure that we rise to eternal life. As limited people, who have limited time, we nonetheless must make sure we place the relationship with the Good Shepherd first in our lives – not just in theory or intention, but actually doing so. We are reminded again of the importance of the basic building blocks of a relationship with Christ: daily prayer, engagement with Scripture, Sunday Mass, frequent confession. These aren’t just dictates of the Church; they are the fundamental components of an authentic faith.

Jesus as the Good Shepherd also means that we are attentive to the ones whom he’s shepherding. This first starts with us. We can be our own worst critics, spiritually speaking. Because we know our own imperfections and sins, we can fall into the trap of thinking we are nobody special in God’s eyes. At times, his presence might feel distant. We might even feel unloved by him. But Jesus as the Good Shepherd reminds us that he laid down his life for us; how much we are worth to him! Whenever we feel tempted to put further distance between ourselves and him – to turn away from prayer, from Mass, from spiritual things, and seek solace or distraction somewhere else – the love of the Good Shepherd calls us back. Because he died and rose for us, he has time and attention for all of us. We must be careful not to minimize or discount the great value God has for each of us, the infinite worth he finds in each of our souls.

When we have understood better the value God finds in us – an awareness that we arrive at again and again, in ever deeper ways – then it will also affect how we look at others. Every person is either a member of the Lord’s flock, or a potential member, and so each person has a worth beyond what this world can give. We must be careful not to view other persons only in the ways that the world looks at them: according to earning capacity, social status, economic productivity, cultural background, skin color, immigration status, etc. etc. Even an individual’s personal history or moral choices don’t tell the whole story, because within everyone, there is an immortal soul, uniquely created by God and infinitely valued by him, and that means infinitely valued by us too. Peter healed the crippled man because he first did not overlook him; he saw him as someone worthy of his time and attention because he knew that, despite that man’s disability and low social status, he was loved and redeemed by Jesus Christ. In the same way, we can lead others to know the love of the Good Shepherd in the way that we first see them as persons and seek to love them in the way God loves them.

Friends, Jesus the Good Shepherd helps us to do this because he still cares for us, the sheep of his flock. He comes to us in this Eucharist, attending to us and reminding us of the infinite worth he finds in us. And then he sends us forth, so that having received him, we may use the limited time we have on this earth to bring others into his fold.