Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/4360

4360 Parable of the good shepherd....

July 2, 1948: Book 51

I want to give you a parable, and you should learn from this how I want My Word to be understood: My earthly children are like a flock of scattered sheep which an enemy's ill will had chased from the shepherd's view into all directions. And the shepherd, who loves his sheep, goes in search for them. He looks for them in the most hidden places, he scales mountains and clambers down gorges, he calls and cajoles and does not rest until his flock is rounded up again. He helps the lambs that lost their way and cannot return by themselves, he follows the long tracks where they already went too far, he takes the tired lambs and carries them back on his shoulders, he leaves none to their fate, to his enemy, who might rob him of it and add it to his own flock. Because he knows his sheep, and his sheep know him and follow his voice.... And the good shepherd's heart rejoices when he has found all his sheep again, when his full flock is in his stable, when every lost lamb has found its way home....

You all are My sheep, you belong to My flock, which nevertheless has free run and therefore can also go astray if it strives for another goal but Me. The hostile shepherd is My adversary who tries to turn you away from Me. And he will often succeed.... My sheep stray from the path I take with My flock, they seek to scale the heights.... You humans seek honour and riches and for their sake leave the path. You fall into ravines and pits, vices and lusts capture you, step by step you descend into the abyss and can be grateful if you get caught by hedges and undergrowth .... if second thoughts arise in you which you don't ignore and are thus spared the deepest fall until your Saviour arrives.

Still others graze in strange pastures; they go astray and don't find their way back to their stable.... These are the people who thoughtlessly wander through earthly life, who are beneficiaries of actions which do not correspond to My will but give them great earthly advantage. They do not deem themselves bad, they are half-hearted, neither for nor against Me, they wander through the earthly valley oblivious of their earthly task, they have to be startled and chased back, so that they take refuge in My arms again Who, as a good shepherd, is ready to receive them at anytime.

I have to search for My lost lambs everywhere.... My call has to be heard everywhere and thus My voice has to sound time and again.... time and again I have to approach people in My Word and call them back into the Father's house. My Word is the call of the good shepherd, My Word is conveyed to human beings with love, My Word penetrates into all corners, wherever it finds entry into people's hearts. And anyone who does not follow My call will stray ever more or descend ever deeper.... And yet, the arm of the good shepherd will reach him one day, even if it takes ages.... Even the person who has resisted Me for a long time will return to Me one day.... one day he will tire of his wrong path and allow Me to lift him onto My shoulders, one day he, too, will willingly follow the good shepherd, the sound of His voice will entice him.... He will recognise it as the Father's voice and follow Me, and I will guide him into the Father's house and prepare a feast for joy for him of finding again what had been lost....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna