This icon illustrates three texts from Scripture: Psalm 23:1; Ezekiel 34:1.2; John 10:1-16; they show the Good Shepherd who watches over his flock, cares for his sheep, judges them, and gives his life for them.
The composition marks an elevation, an election. The Good Shepherd is Christ, and the sheep that we are are represented by the child. The iconography always prefers the face of man to the symbol of the animal because God has taken on a human face, and this face announces our eternal face.
Christ is in the light; he places his hand on the child as a sign of blessing; the child holds a small loaf of bread in his right hand and raises his left hand towards his shepherd: the space of relationship and communion between Christ and the child is the center of the icon.
Why a child? Because he is destined to grow; he is nourished, educated, led, protected by the Good Shepherd who wants him to live his own life. At the origin of each human being, there is God's choice: no one is born by accident. God makes us grow up and complete us, he wants us to become adults. The Good Shepherd knows his sheep and calls each one by name. God desires to make us enter into his intimacy, that we become for him a friend, a wife (Cf. Hosea 2,19; John 3,29; 15,14.15).
Paradoxically, to become an adult is to become a child of God, to receive our being from him, to hand ourselves over completely to him in trust, sure that he loves us and wants our good. And to do this, we must accept to be judged, to be adjusted: the awareness of our misery opens a space in our hearts to welcome the gift that God gives us of his life. His love works in us to restore us to his Image.
The Good Shepherd is dressed in purple, symbol of royalty, and in an orange mantle, streaked with gold and light: he is King. The true king is always a pastor. The strength of a king is to love justice. And he gives his Life, and Life is the Light of men (cf. John 1,4).
The child is dressed in white, like the chosen of the Apocalypse: God clothes us with his fullness.
Sister Marie-Paul
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