Here is a quote. I will tell you who it is at the end. “The whole meaning of life is trying to find a place for our stuff. That’s what your house is — a place to put all your stuff. Your house is really just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. It’s a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff. You then have to buy a bigger house because you’ve run out of room for all your stuff, and you have to have more space for more stuff.”

The author is not a famous philosopher, but is actually the comedian George Carlin. Now compare the “stuff” that George Carlin speaks about to the closing words of today’s Gospel passage: “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

Our problem is that too often we think abundance refers only to garnering more stuff. Jesus is trying to help us understand in today’s Gospel, and throughout his whole ministry, that true abundance comes not from what we possess, but from how deeply we love, how generously we share.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus uses the image of a good shepherd always watching out for the sheep, always providing what is best, always making sure the sheep are in the right place.

The story presents Jesus in relation to us his people, his sheep. He wants what is best for us. Sometimes we stray. Sometimes we listen to other voices. In fact, the voice of Jesus can sometimes be difficult to hear because there are so many competing voices in the public, voices pushing us in directions where we should not go.

Just like a good shepherd does not give up on his sheep, so Jesus does not give up on us.

Jesus gives us an abundance, his life, his message, his watchful care. Why would we even want to look elsewhere?

Jesus sends each of us an invitation: Spend less time acquiring more stuff and less time focusing on ourselves. Rather, look to him so that we can have an abundance of life, an abundance of all that is good. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. We are not sheep, but we are hopefully his faithful followers.