FROM THE PULPIT FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR B REFLECTION: The Good Shepherd
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FROM THE PULPIT
FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR B
HOLY SCRIPTURE: Acts 4: 8-12; Psalm 118; 1John 3: 1-2; John 10:11-18.
REFLECTION: The Good Shepherd (Shepherd-Leader Model).
Fr. Benoit Mukamba, CSSp.
What happened to Jesus of Nazareth and his disciples during the holy week overshadows our minds and memories. We cannot but contemplate the meaning of the paschal mysteries of the passion, death and resurrection. We have heard from the Acts of the Apostles about the work of Jesus under his new form of presence. He heals through the Apostles’ invocation of Jesus’ name. Jesus creates opportunities for the Apostles to make him known to the Elders and leaders of Israel who had condemned him to death on the cross. In today’s Gospel, Jesus’s teaching on the good shepherd becomes understandable to the disciples. What was happening to them, miracles and persecutions, reinforced their faith in Jesus as savior of the world.
While Peter the Apostle sees Jesus as the “Cornerstone”, Jesus defines himself as a “Good Shepherd”. The theme of the Good Shepherd takes precedence during this Sunday and the mother Church invites us through it to pray for leadership, for vocations in the Church and world. During his ministry in Israel, Jesus proved to the people that he was a leader who cared for his people to the expense of his own life. He heals, delivers and feeds the people who come to him. He guides and points to happiness and eternal life through his teachings and deeds. For centuries long, God had called Israelites’ leaders to shepherd his people but they turned into hirelings and self-servient. In Jesus Christ, God fulfilled his promise of a good shepherd to Israel.
“The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11): the Apostles grasped the meaning of these words after the resurrection that Christ surrendering his life on the cross, freely obeying the will of his Father, offered his ultimate sacrifice for the salvation of the world on the Cross. The significance that He is “the Good Shepherd” thus becomes completely clear: He gives life, He offered his life in sacrifice for us all: for you, for you, for you, for me, for everyone! And for this reason He is the Good Shepherd! The imagery of the good shepherd draws us to contemplate God’s Providence and his fatherly solicitude for each one of us. The result of this contemplation of Jesus the Good Shepherd brings us face to face with his wonderful love and self-abandonment. We heard from the second reading these words “See what love the Father has bestowed on us…” (1 John 3:1). It is truly amazing and awesome to consciously consider what God has done for us, for by giving us Jesus as the Shepherd who gives his life for us, the Father has given us all of the greatest and most precious that He could give us.
However, it is not enough for us to wonder and give thanks. It is also important to walk in the footsteps and with the Good Shepherd, it entombs more so to us as alter-Christi and who profess openly Christ as Lord and Savior to exercise leadership in accordance with Jesus’ style, the Shepherd-leader. The shepherd-leader model presented to us in today’s Gospel is applicable to both the ordained and the common priesthood of all the baptized people. We are called to exercise this type of leadership in all the dimensions of our lives – in the diversified functions of our society. By being a shepherd-leader we bear witness to Christ our chief shepherd. The desire and objective of the Good Shepherd is to embrace all so that “there will be one flock, one shepherd.”(John 10:16). The challenge of the Good Shepherd leads us to reflect on the national news of the policeman being found guilty in the death of George Floyd. We may ask ourselves what it means to us and to our nation. Could we look at the issue or issues with open mindedness, in a non-defensive way or accusative positioning; so that we may act with respect and mercy toward one another?
