The sacred liturgy of Feria Quinta infra Hebdomadam II post Octavam Paschæ—Thursday in the Second Week after the Octave of Easter—places before us two deeply resonant passages: 1 Peter 2:21–25 and John 10:11–16. In this radiant season, when the Church still echoes with Alleluias and contemplates the mystery of the risen Christ, these readings invite us to ponder the Paschal Shepherd—the one who leads by suffering, who heals by bearing wounds, who gathers by laying down His life.
Christ the Model in Suffering (1 Peter 2:21–25)
“For unto this are you called,” says St. Peter, “because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow His steps.” The Apostle does not present Christ’s Passion merely as a redemptive fact—though it is supremely that—but also as a path to be imitated. Here we are reminded of the imitatio Christi, the imitation of Christ, which forms the very marrow of Christian discipleship.
St. Augustine, commenting on these words, teaches us that “Christ suffered for us, not only that He might redeem us, but that He might teach us how to suffer.” In Sermon 96, he writes: “He who is the Head of the Church first suffered, then entered into His glory; so too must His members follow the same path of humiliation before exaltation.” The shepherd walks before the flock. He suffers first, not only on behalf of the sheep but as an exemplar for their own trials.
The passage continues with the haunting line, “Who his own self bore our sins in His body upon the tree.” Here the Apostle uses unmistakably sacrificial language, evoking the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. Indeed, “by His wounds you were healed.” St. Cyril of Jerusalem, in his Catechetical Lectures, dwells on this mystery: “He was pierced, that you might be unpierced; He was made a curse, that you might be delivered from the curse; He was nailed, that you might be loosed from the bonds of sin.” The healing is not metaphorical; it is sacramental and mystical—accomplished in the Passion and applied to our souls in the sacraments.
The Good Shepherd (John 10:11–16)
In harmony with Peter’s epistle, today’s Gospel from St. John presents the Lord’s own declaration: “Ego sum pastor bonus—I am the good shepherd.” Christ reveals not only His identity but the nature of His mission. Unlike the hireling, the Good Shepherd does not flee at danger; rather, He lays down His life for the sheep.
St. Gregory the Great, in his Homilies on the Gospels (Hom. 14), beautifully contrasts the hireling with the true shepherd: “The hireling is he who sees the wolf coming and flees… The wolf is the devil, who seizes souls. The hireling flees when he loves the gain of the shepherd’s office but not the care of the sheep.” The true shepherd, however, binds his heart to his sheep, and is willing to die for them.
And this is precisely what the Lord has done. The laying down of His life is not merely a tragic end but a voluntary oblation. “No man taketh it from me,” Christ says elsewhere in this chapter (v. 18), “but I lay it down of myself.” This voluntary sacrifice is the fulfillment of the Father’s will, and the archetype of all Christian charity.
Moreover, Christ declares: “And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring.” This verse—so often read evangelistically—is rooted in the very nature of the Church as catholica, universal. St. Augustine interprets these words as a prophecy of the Gentiles being called into the one flock: “This was said concerning us,” he writes in Tractate 45 on John, “for He was speaking to the Jews. But we are the other sheep… and we were called by His voice and gathered into one by His blood.”
The Wounded Shepherd and the One Flock
The readings for this Thursday in Paschaltide thus intertwine the mystery of redemptive suffering with the ecclesial unity wrought by the Shepherd’s love. The cross is not only the instrument of our salvation but the throne of the Good Shepherd. It is from this throne that He reigns, and from it that He calls His sheep. It is in His wounds that we find healing; it is in His voice that we find unity.
Let us contemplate this mystery not as mere theological abstraction but as the living truth of our vocation. To be healed by His wounds is to be conformed to His way; to be part of His flock is to hear His voice and follow where He leads, even unto suffering.
In this Paschal season, may we learn anew from our Shepherd—so that, as St. Peter says, “you may return now to the shepherd and bishop of your souls.” May our souls, once straying, be found in the pierced hands of the risen Lord.
Collect for Thursday after the Second Sunday of Easter:
Deus, qui in Filii tui humilitate jacentem mundum erexisti: fidélibus tuis perpetuam concede lætitiam; ut quos perpétua mortis eripuísti casibus, gaudiis facias perfrui sempiternis. Per eundem Dóminum nostrum…