http://www.dailycatholic.org/issue/14May/2eastsun.htm#haydock

Epistle: 2 Saint Peter 2: 21-25

21 For to this you have been called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow His steps.

22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth:

23 Who when He was reviled, did not revile: when He suffered, He threatened not: but delivered Himself to him that judged Him unjustly:

Commentary on Verse 23: Christ, Who was incapable of sinning, did not revile them that reviled Him; He suffered all with patience; He willingly gave Himself up to Pontius Pilate, that judged Him, and condemned Him unjustly to the death of the cross: and remember that all He suffered was to satisfy for your sins, that He bore our sins in His Own body on the tree of the cross. Remember always this great benefit of your redemption, and of your being called to believe in Him, and to be eternally happy by following His doctrine; that all of you were as sheep going astray, lost in your ignorance and in your sins, but that by His grace and by His merits you are now called and converted to Jesus Christ, the great pastor and bishop of your souls. You are happy if you live under His care, inspection, and protection. (Witham)

24 Who His Ownself bore our sins in His body upon the tree: that we being dead to sins, should live to justice: by Whose stripes you were healed.

25 For you were as sheep going astray: but you are now converted to the pastor and bishop of your souls.


Gospel: St. John 10: 11-16

11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth His life for His sheep.

Commentary on Verse 11: How happy are we in having such a shepherd, so great, so good, so loving, so careful of our true welfare! O He is the true shepherd indeed, that came down from Heaven to seek the poor sheep that was lost; and when He found it, took it upon His Own shoulders to carry it home with joy to His heavenly fold. How dearly have His sheep cost Him, for truly has He made good in Himself this sentence, that the good shepherd giveth His life for His sheep. Let us then ever follow and obey, love and embrace this true shepherd of our souls. (Meditations for every Day, vol. ii. p. 417.) The good pastor gives his life for his sheep; He exposes himself to every danger to save them, no inclemency of the weather, no frost or cold, no rains or tempests, can drive him from looking over his sheep, to defend them from the attacks of wolves, &c. and like Jacob he might say, day and night was I parched with heat, and with cold, and sleep departed from my eyes. (Genesis xl.) Or, like David speaking to Saul: "Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion or a bear, and took a ram out of the midst of the flock; and I pursued after them, and struck them, and delivered it out of their mouths; and they arose up against me, and I caught them by the throat, and I strangled them, and killed them." (1 Kings xvii.) This is a model of a true pastor. But Jesus Christ has done more than this for us. He has exposed His life and His repose, He has spilled His blood, He delivered Himself to the fury of His enemies, and has offered Himself as a victim on the cross to His eternal Father, to free us, His lost sheep, from the most cruel wolf, the devil. And ever since His death He has always protected His Church, assisted and consoled His distressed flock under all their sufferings, pouring into their hearts the consolations of the Holy Spirit, and sending to them holy teachers, to govern and lead them in the holy path of salvation. Such were the apostles and their successors, the bishops and priests of the holy Catholic Church, whom He has sent, and will continue to send, to govern His flock to the end of time. (Calmet.)

12 But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf snatcheth, and scattereth the sheep:

13 And the hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling: and he hath no care for the sheep.

Commentary on Verse 13: Every bishop and pastor is bound to abide with his flock in the time of danger, and persecution, except himself be personally sought for, rather than his flock, or the flock itself forsake him. In such cases the pastor may fly, as the apostles did, and St. Athanasius and others. (St. Athanasius, Apol. de suâ fugâ.; St. Augustine, ep. 180.)

14 I am the good shepherd, and I know Mine, and Mine know Me.

Commentary on Verse 14: I know Mine, and Mine know Me. To know, in the style of the holy Scriptures, is to love and approve. (Witham)

15 As the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father, and I lay down My life for My sheep.

Commentary on Verse 15: I lay down. That is, in a short time shall lay down My life for My sheep: for all, and in a special manner for My elect. See ver. 28. (Witham)

16 And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold, and one Shepherd.

Commentary on Verse 16: One fold. In the Greek one flock. The signification is the same; that is, there shall be one church of Jєωs and Gentiles converted. (Witham)

http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2003.htm#article8

Article 8. Whether man's happiness consists in the vision of the divine essence?

Objection 1. It would seem that man's happiness does not consist in the vision of the Divine Essence. For Dionysius says (Myst. Theol. i) that by that which is highest in his intellect, man is united to God as to something altogether unknown. But that which is seen in its essence is not altogether unknown. Therefore the final perfection of the intellect, namely, happiness, does not consist in God being seen in His Essence.

Objection 2. Further, the higher the perfection belongs to the higher nature. But to see His own Essence is the perfection proper to the Divine intellect. Therefore the final perfection of the human intellect does not reach to this, but consists in something less.

On the contrary, It is written (1 John 3:2): "When He shall appear, we shall be like to Him; and [Vulgate: 'because'] we shall see Him as He is."

I answer that, Final and perfect happiness can consist in nothing else than the vision of the Divine Essence. To make this clear, two points must be observed. First, that man is not perfectly happy, so long as something remains for him to desire and seek: secondly, that the perfection of any power is determined by the nature of its object. Now the object of the intellect is "what a thing is," i.e. the essence of a thing, according to De Anima iii, 6. Wherefore the intellect attains perfection, in so far as it knows the essence of a thing. If therefore an intellect knows the essence of some effect, whereby it is not possible to know the essence of the cause, i.e. to know of the cause "what it is"; that intellect cannot be said to reach that cause simply, although it may be able to gather from the effect the knowledge of that the cause is. Consequently, when man knows an effect, and knows that it has a cause, there naturally remains in the man the desire to know about the cause, "what it is." And this desire is one of wonder, and causes inquiry, as is stated in the beginning of the Metaphysics (i, 2). For instance, if a man, knowing the eclipse of the sun, consider that it must be due to some cause, and know not what that cause is, he wonders about it, and from wondering proceeds to inquire. Nor does this inquiry cease until he arrive at a knowledge of the essence of the cause.

If therefore the human intellect, knowing the essence of some created effect, knows no more of God than "that He is"; the perfection of that intellect does not yet reach simply the First Cause, but there remains in it the natural desire to seek the cause. Wherefore it is not yet perfectly happy. Consequently, for perfect happiness the intellect needs to reach the very Essence of the First Cause. And thus it will have its perfection through union with God as with that object, in which alone man's happiness consists, as stated above (1,7; 2, 8).

Reply to Objection 1. Dionysius speaks of the knowledge of wayfarers journeying towards happiness.

Reply to Objection 2. As stated above (Question 1, Article 8), the end has a twofold acceptation. First, as to the thing itself which is desired: and in this way, the same thing is the end of the higher and of the lower nature, and indeed of all things, as stated above (Question 1, Article 8). Secondly, as to the attainment of this thing; and thus the end of the higher nature is different from that of the lower, according to their respective habitudes to that thing. So then in the happiness of God, Who, in understanding his Essence, comprehends It, is higher than that of a man or angel who sees It indeed, but comprehends It not.