Mother Church celebrates May 03, 2020 as the fourth Sunday of Easter, Year A. It is also called Good Shepherd Sunday. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord; by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, alleluia!”
In the first reading from Acts of the Apostles, Saint Peter exhorts the Christians to turn to Christ and consolidate their relationship with him. He urges them: “You must repent and save yourselves from this perverse generation.” In the second reading, Saint Peter asks us to keep our gaze fixed on Jesus who suffered and was victorious through his suffering and death. In the Gospel, Saint John shows us Jesus who is not only a good shepherd but also a guardian, the door through which anyone who enters will be saved. In the course of this Eucharist, we pray for the grace to recognize Christ as the true shepherd to whom we should turn at all times, especially in these moments of uncertainty as the world reels from the devastating effects of the coronavirus.
First Reading: Acts 2:14, 36‑41
On the day of Pentecost Peter stood up with the Eleven and addressed the crowd with a loud voice: “The whole House of Israel can be certain that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.” Hearing this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the apostles, “What must we do, brothers?” “You must repent”, Peter answered, “and every one of you must be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise that was made is for you and your children, and for all those who are far away, for all those whom the Lord our God will call to himself.” He spoke to them for a long time using many arguments, and he urged them, “Save yourselves from this perverse generation.” They were convinced by his arguments, and they accepted what he said and were baptised. That very day about three thousand were added to their number.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
Peter’s Pentecost Day sermon, which we heard last Sunday, ends with the verses of today’s reading, and Saint Luke, author of Acts of the Apostles, notes the overwhelming response to the Saint Peter’s appeal. “That very day about three thousand were added to their number.” For Saint Luke, the mission of the Church begins with the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Day. It is then that Christ’s commission to his followers to go out into the four corners of the world and proclaim his word of salvation truly comes into effect. The possession of the Holy Spirit is the reality of the Lord’s saving work.
Peter’s sermon explains what is happening: the promised outpouring of God’s Spirit is now here and is manifest in the preaching of the Apostles. Israel is now given the invitation to embrace the final stage of God’s plan, for already the invitation is going out to the peoples of the earth; all those who are far away are also being called to God’s table.
If men turn away from their wicked ways – ways which led to the crucifixion of their Lord – then the Holy Spirit will come upon them, too, making their lives holy and gathering them into the communion of the Church, the renewed people of God.
Let us pray therefore that the Holy Spirit may come into our own lives this day, fortify our faith, as he did the faith of the Apostles, so that we too may be able to proclaim the greatness of our Lord’s saving grace wherever we may find ourselves. Let us pray: “With joy in our hearts, we call upon you, Lord, to send us the fire of your Spirit, as we proclaim your resurrection. Fill the whole world with the knowledge of your glory, that we may live only for you and proclaim your word of salvation to all creation. We make this supplication through Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen. Alleluia.”
Second Reading: 1 Peter 2:20‑25
The merit, in the sight of God, is in bearing punishment patiently when you are punished after doing your duty. This, in fact, is what you were called to do, because Christ suffered for you and left an example for you to follow the way he took. He had not done anything wrong, and there had been no perjury in his mouth. He was insulted and did not retaliate with insults; when he was tortured he made no threats but he put his trust in the righteous judge. He was bearing our faults in his own body on the cross, so that we might die to our faults and live for holiness; through his wounds you have been healed. You had gone astray like sheep but now you have come back to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
As we mentioned last Sunday, Saint Peter’s letters were addressed to Jewish Christians in the dispersion, that is, those living outside Israel in Gentile lands and who were being persecuted because of their Christian faith. Saint Peter is writing to encourage them to be steadfast in the faith and to advise them on how to conduct themselves during the time of their exile. His message, however, is not for Jewish Christians alone. It is for all Christians, for you and me, since, as Peter says, all Christians are in exile insofar as they still live in this world.
In the second part of his letter, Saint Peter identifies the kinds of obligations Christians have in society, that is, exemplary lives to be led by all in a pagan environment; the duties citizens have to legitimate authority; the duties servants have towards their masters; the duties of husbands to their wives in family life and the duty of all to practise the greatest fraternity.
The passage selected for our meditation is a beautiful hymn to Christ on the cross. Christ’s sufferings, which fulfil the prophecies of Isaiah about the Servant of Yahweh, have not been in vain, for they have a redemptive value. He has taken our sins upon himself and brought them with him onto the cross, offering himself as an atoning sacrifice. This means we are free of our sins and can now live for holiness with the help of grace.
Christ’s suffering is always a necessary point of reference for us, Christians. It shows that no matter how great the trials we experience, they will never be as great or as unjust as those suffered by our Lord himself. Reflecting on Christ’s suffering, Saint Bernard said that it gave him strength in adversity and helped him to be humble in prosperity, allowing him to walk a sure step on the royal road of salvation, even when the evil things of the present life threatened him left and right.
In concluding this part of his letter, St Peter applied to Christ the words God places on the lips of the prophet Ezekiel: “I will seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered” (Ezek 34:12). The image of our Lord as the Good Shepherd is taken up in greater detail in John’s Gospel of this day. Our Lord founded the Church as a sheepfold “whose sheep,” the Fathers of Vatican II tell us in their document Lumen Gentium, “although watched over by human shepherds, are nevertheless at all times led and brought to pasture by Christ himself, the Good Shepherd and prince of shepherds, who gave his life for his sheep.”
As we continue to rejoice in the resurrection from the dead of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we, as Christians, should never forget that he (Christ) was crucified for our sins. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to fortify our faith so that we can keep away from sin, the sin that brought about the death of our Lord and Saviour, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen. Alleluia.
Gospel: John 10:1‑10
Jesus said: “I tell you most solemnly, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but gets in some other way is a thief and a brigand. The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock; the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out. When he has brought out his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice. They never follow a stranger but run away from him: they do not recognise the voice of strangers.” Jesus told them this parable but they failed to understand what he meant by telling it to them. So Jesus spoke to them again: “I tell you most solemnly, I am the gate of the sheepfold. All others who have come are thieves and brigands; but the sheep took no notice of them. I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe: he will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.”
V/ The Gospel of the Lord.
R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Comment
The Gospel of today is on the good, committed, caring and courageous shepherd. The title “shepherd” in the Hebrew Bible refers primarily to God, who shepherds his people. This is brought out clearly in Psalm 23, the responsorial psalm of this day’s Mass, which says: “The Lord is my Shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.” Here God is portrayed as a faithful and good shepherd who leads his flock into wellbeing and abundance (green pastures) and keeps them safe from every danger (valley of darkness) such that they want for nothing and fear no evil even as they are surrounded by their foes (wolves and lions).
God’s promise to his people that he was going to continue to shepherd them was fulfilled in his Son, Jesus Christ, who declared himself the Good Shepherd who has come “that they may have life, and have it in abundance”, as we hear in John 10:10. Christ is the good shepherd, who lays down his own life to protect his flock. In those days, shepherds guarding their flock by night would gather their flock into an enclosure and literally sleep by lying across the entrance so that before a wild beast would attack the sheep, it would have to attack them first.
So, one of the qualities of a good shepherd is courage. The work of a shepherd is a dangerous one because he can easily be attacked by a wild beast but a courageous shepherd fears no wild beast.
Another quality of a good shepherd is total commitment to his sheep. You will never see the sheep without their shepherd. The shepherd has to keep constant watch over his flock day after day, week after week, and month after month. To be a shepherd is not a job, it’s a way of life. When Jesus calls himself a good shepherd, he means that he is committed to his flock, that is, to you and me, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 or 366 days a year. Every moment of his life is dedicated to us.
Another quality of a good shepherd is that he is a deeply caring person. A shepherd’s satisfaction is tied to the welfare of his flock. When the flock is satisfied, the shepherd is satisfied too. When the flock is in pain, so is the shepherd. Jesus will risk his life to search and bring back the one strayed sheep (Mt 8, 12).
If the Gospel of this day calls Jesus the good shepherd, it is because of the qualities we have just enumerated above. Jesus was so committed to the cause of humanity that he gave up his life for us. He was patient and caring when he took care of the sick, the hungry and people who suffered one problem or another.
These qualities of Jesus challenge every Christian today. It’s not uncommon to hear people ask, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” To Christ, the answer is definitely a resounding yes! We are all each other’s keeper. We are all each other’s shepherd, especially at this time of this pandemic that has struck humanity with such tragic consequences. Let us pray for the grace and courage to be a better shepherd irrespective of our state in life, so that we can reach out with understanding and compassion to the weak and misguided dropouts of church and society, so that through us they may hear the loving voice of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. We make our supplication through Jesus Christ, the risen, the Good Shepherd, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen. Alleluia!
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