Today,the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, it is significant that Ezekiel, the Responsorial Psalm and the Gospel all three invite us to contemplate and ponder with gratitude on the one who must indeed be the "Shepherd of all Ages."

Nowadays it could well be that the shepherd accompanies the flock on a motor bicycle with his dog riding pillion behind him. Modern life may be less romantic but what matters is that a good job is done. If the shepherd finds a sick or injured sheep, then the dog will have to cede its place until help can be found for the animal in need. We can be pretty sure that despite the growing mechanization of life and the enormous size of today's flocks the modern shepherd will do his or her job as well as it can be done. Maybe we can even hope that their hearts will be moved by the predicament of their charge and that they will do their job with some thing akin to love.

There is no doubt that today's readings are suggesting that Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Ultimate Shepherd because he was vulnerable. His heart was totally vulnerable. He will lay down his life for us. In fact the reading from Romans tells us the Jesus laid down his life for the ungodly, the potentially irrecoverably lost sheep. Much more than can we trust that he will come to our aid when we may be "straying" provided we realise we are moving into dangerous pastures.