The Universal Church celebrates May 08, 2022 as the fourth Sunday of Easter – Year C. In the entrance antiphon of this day’s Holy Mass we pray: “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord; by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, alleluia.”
This Sunday is usually referred to as ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’. For the past fifty-nine years, however, it has also been celebrated as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations or Vocations Sunday. Saint Pope Paul VI instituted it when the Vatican II Council was still in session. In his message for this year’s celebration, Pope Francis laments that we are celebrating this year’s Vocations Sunday when “the cold winds of war and oppression are blowing” across Europe. That notwithstanding, “we as a Church have undertaken a synodal process: we sense the urgent need to journey together, cultivating the spirit of listening, participation and sharing.” In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray for more vocations in the Church, not only vocations to the priesthood or the consecrated life, but also vocations to the sacrament of marriage.
In the first reading, from Acts of the Apostles, we see the Church rapidly expanding its missionary activities from Jerusalem to cover the whole of Palestine. Through Paul and Barnabas, the Gospel begins to surge beyond the borders of Palestine. The Jews reject the message but the non-Jews receive it with much joy. In the second reading, from the book of Revelation, Saint John describes the scene of heaven with the triumph of those who have survived the great tribulation; those who ‘have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb.’ In the Gospel, Saint John describes Jesus as the good shepherd whose sheep listen to his voice. Christ’s sheep are those who believe that he is one with the Father. No one can therefore prevent these followers of Jesus from gaining the rewards of their faith in him.
First Reading: Acts of the Apostles 13:14. 43-52.
Paul and Barnabas carried on from Perga till they reached Antioch in Pisidia. Here they went to the synagogue on the Sabbath and took their seats. When the meeting broke up, many Jews and devout converts joined Paul and Barnabas, and in their talks with them Paul and Barnabas urged them to remain faithful to the grace God had given them. The next Sabbath almost the whole town assembled to hear the word of God. When they saw the crowds, the Jews, prompted by jealousy, used blasphemies and contradicted everything Paul said. Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, ‘We had to proclaim the word of God to you first, but since you have rejected it, since you do not think yourselves worthy of eternal life, we must turn to the pagans. For this is what the Lord commanded us to do when he said, ‘I have made you a light to the nations, so that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.’ It made the pagans very happy to hear this and they thanked the Lord for his message; all who were destined for eternal life became believers. Thus, the word of the Lord spread through the whole countryside. But the Jews worked upon some of the devout women of the upper classes and the leading men of the city and persuaded them to turn against Paul and Barnabas and expel them from their territory. So they shook the dust from their feet in defiance and went off to Iconium; but the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.
Comment
The Acts of the Apostles tell us how the Gospel has gone out of Jerusalem and spread throughout Palestine. Non Jews too are now being increasingly admitted into the fold as Jews turn their backs on the Gospel. It starts with Peter preaching to the Roman centurion Cornelius and baptizing his household (Acts 10: 48). Now through Paul and Barnabas the Gospel message has begun to surge beyond the borders of Palestine. They help to evangelize the Greeks in Antioch. From now on, the mission to the Gentiles becomes Paul’s major work. He turns to the Gentiles because the Jews have rejected the Lord’s message and now constitute a strong opposition to Paul’s mission in Antioch. The opposition of these Jews, who in their jealousy contradict Paul and Barnabas, will from now become the typical attitude of the synagogue to the Gospel.
Paul and Barnabas are disappointed with the attitude of the Jews. They had thought that the message of Christ would flourish in the land of the Jews and that the Jews would receive the message in peace and enthusiasm. Paul and Barnabas quote the prophet Isaiah in support of their decision to take the Gospel message to the Gentile world. They preach that the Messiah is the “light to the nations”.
The Gentiles, who are open to God’s grace, are glad to hear God’s word. Here is the paradox: the Jews, the chosen people of God reject God’s word and close the way to their salvation, whereas the Gentiles accept it with gratitude. Salvation is a gift from God and we receive it on condition that we are open to it. If our faith, like that of the Jews, is marked by envy and pride, it can only block God’s grace and hinder salvation.
Our salvation too depends on how open, kind and generous we are to others. We have to accept our own poverty before God and accept others in Christ with Christian openness and generosity. Those who accept Paul’s message experience the joy of the Spirit. Those who reject him, like the Jews, receive the warning, ‘Since you do not think yourselves worthy of eternal life, we must turn to the Pagans’ (Acts 13: 46). Thus, neither persecution, nor hardships nor rejection can stop the Word of God from being preached, in season or out of season, whether we are listened to or not.
Let us pray for courageous preachers like Paul and Barnabas who can take God’s word to the four corners of the world in total defiance of whatever obstacles they may find on their way. Let us pray with Pope Francis: “Lord, may you grant to those who are on a vocational journey a deep sense of belonging to the Church; and may the Holy Spirit strengthen among Pastors, and all of the faithful, a deeper sense of communion, discernment and spiritual fatherhood and mother”. We make our prayer through Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God forever and ever. Amen. Alleluia.
Second Reading: Apocalypse 7:9. 14-17.
I, John, saw a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands. One of the elders said to me, ‘These are the people who have been through the great persecution, and because they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb, they now stand in front of God’s throne and serve him day and night in his sanctuary; and the One who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. They will never hunger or thirst again; neither the sun nor scorching wind will ever plague them, because the Lamb who is at the throne will be their shepherd and will lead them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes.’
Comment
There are two visions in this chapter that are meant to illustrate God’s protection of Christians and the happy circumstances of the martyrs. The entire Church, made up of people from the four corners of the earth, and the happy circumstances of the martyrs, are seen in this vision. In a homily he gave on November 1, 1981, Saint John Paul II said, among other things, that ‘The people dressed in white whom John sees with his prophetic eye are the redeemed, and they form ‘a great multitude’, which no one could count and which is made up of people of the most varied backgrounds. The blood of the Lamb, who has been offered in sacrifice for all, has exercised its universal and most effective redemptive power in every corner of the earth, extending grace and salvation to that ‘great multitude’. After undergoing the trials and being purified in the blood of the Christ, they – the redeemed – are now safe in the Kingdom of God, whom they praise and bless forever and ever.”
This great crowd includes all the saved and not just the martyrs, for it says that they washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, not in their own blood. It is consoling to know that those who attain heaven constitute a huge multitude. Heaven is not restricted to just a few; it is open to a countless multitude. As Saint Paul tells Timothy, “(God) desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4).
This consoling scene is included in this vision to encourage us, believers, to imitate those Christians who were like us on earth and are now members of the Church Triumphant, the Church in the Heavenly Jerusalem. The Church invites us to imitate those who have gone ahead of us marked with the sign of faith so that we too will join them in heaven when our time on earth runs out. Let us pray: “Father, you sanctified the Church of Rome with the blood of its first martyrs. May we find strength from their courage and rejoice in their triumph, through Christ the risen Lord, who lives and reigns world without end. Amen. Alleluia.”
Gospel acclamation: "Alleluia, alleluia. I am the good shepherd, says the Lord; I know my sheep and my sheep know me. Alleluia"
Gospel: John 10: 27-30.
Jesus said, ‘The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life; they will never be lost and no one will ever steal them from me. The Father who gave them to me is greater than anyone, and no one can steal from the Father. The Father and I are one.’
Comment
As I mentioned in the introduction to this Holy Mass, this Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Easter, is generally celebrated as Good Shepherd Sunday. The name derives from the Gospel readings, taken from the 10th chapter of John in which Christ is described as the Good Shepherd who, by dying on the Cross, lays down his life for his sheep. In recent times, however, this Sunday has also become known as Vocations Sunday, a day on which prayers should be said for vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
Saint Paul VI instituted this day when the Vatican II Council was still in session. In a radio message on 11 April 1964, he said, among other things, that “The problem of having a sufficient number of priests has an immediate impact on all of the faithful: not simply because they depend on it for the religious future of Christian society, but also because this problem is the precise and inescapable indicator of the vitality of faith and love of individual parish and diocesan communities, and the evidence of the moral health of Christian families. Wherever numerous vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life are to be found, that is where people are living the Gospel with generosity”.
The Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI once said that “Vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life are born out of the experience of a personal encounter with Christ, out of sincere and confident dialogue with him, so as to enter into his will. It is necessary, therefore, to grow in the experience of faith, understood as a profound relationship with Jesus, as inner attentiveness to his voice which is heard deep within us. This process, which enables us to respond positively to God’s call, is possible in Christian communities where the faith is lived intensely, where generous witness is given of adherence to the Gospel, where there is a strong sense of mission which leads people to make the total gift of self for the Kingdom of God, nourished by recourse to the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, and by a fervent life of prayer.” (Spe Salvi, 34).
In this year’s message, Pope Francis says that “the Lord’s call is not an intrusion of God in our freedom; it is not a “cage” or a burden to be borne. On the contrary, it is the loving initiative whereby God encounters us and invites us to be part of a great undertaking. He opens before our eyes the horizon of a greater sea and an abundant catch.”
We pray that Christ should send worthy, upright, dedicated and saintly labourers into his vineyard to shepherd his people as he himself did (Mt 9: 37-38). As we saw last Sunday, when Christ made his last appearance before Ascension, he commissioned Peter to feed his lambs, tend his sheep, and shepherd of his flock (Jn 21: 15-17). Christ passes the shepherd symbol he has claimed for himself to Peter, who must continue our Lord’s mission and be his representative on earth. As the Latin saying goes, ‘Ubi Petrus, ibi Ecclesia’ – Where Peter is, there the Church of Christ is.
Therefore, on this Sunday dedicated jointly to the Good Shepherd and to prayer for increased vocations in the Church, we pray that Peter’s successor, the Holy Father Pope Francis, and those assisting him in the ministry of Christ’s Church on earth – bishops, priest and religious men and women – should be ready to lay down their life, if need be, for the Church, as Peter did. May they be good shepherds who gather the Lord’s flock and seek out new pastures for them!
Let us say this prayer for vocations which Pope Francis has given to the Church. “Father of mercy, who gave your Son for our salvation and who strengthens us always with the gifts of your Spirit, grant us Christian communities which are alive, fervent and joyous, which are fonts of fraternal life, and which nurture in the young the desire to consecrate themselves to you and to the work of evangelisation. Sustain these communities in their commitment to offer appropriate vocational catechesis and ways of proceeding towards each one’s particular consecration. Grant the wisdom needed for vocational discernment, so that in all things the greatness of your merciful love may shine forth. May Mary, Mother and guide of Jesus, intercede for each Christian community, so that, made fruitful by the Holy Spirit, it may be a source of true vocations for the service of the holy People of God. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Alleluia!”
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