Christ the Shepherd and Guardian of our Souls
Introduction: Blessings to you as you spend time reflecting on GOD's word in preparation for the Fourth Sunday of Easter – Good Shepherd Sunday.
Some believers focus on their “personal relationship” with the Lord Jesus. Having a personal relationship is absolutely essential. Yet it cannot stop with an only “Jesus and me” type of faith. Being in relationship with GOD leads us to be in loving relationship with others. We are called to be disciples of the Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd. We need to tend to that part of the flock that Jesus entrusts to us.
Today is Pastor Bonus Sunday. No, that does not mean that our local clergy receive extra pay. Pastor Bonus is Latin for “Good Shepherd.” We are reminded that Jesus is the Good Shepherd Who is willing to, and actually does, lay down His life for His sheep. In addressing the religious leaders, St. Peter (in our First Reading) explains how a cripple was healed in the Name of Jesus, the very Jesus Who had died and Who is now risen. In his presentation Peter quotes the psalm that is used as today’s Responsorial Psalm in which we hear that GOD uses the rejected stone as the cornerstone of the new structure. In the Second Reading, St. John reminds his listeners that they have become children of GOD through Jesus freely choosing to do GOD’s work. In the Gospel, Jesus declares, “I AM the Good Shepherd.”
First Reading: Acts 4:8-12. The name of Jesus Christ is the only name in which we can be saved
Commentary: The Acts of the Apostles shows that the Church carries on the life of Jesus. Under the leadership and power of the Spirit it represents the Risen Christ in the world of the first century and of today. So Peter and Paul work the same sorts of miracles as Jesus as signs and works of power. They heal people, raise the dead, forgive sins and spread the Good News of the sovereignty of God, just as Jesus did. In less spectacular ways also the life of the community still continues the work of Jesus. Peter explains that all this is done ‘in the name of Jesus’. The name signifies the power of a person. So we are baptised in, or even into, the name of Jesus, and in this way take on his personality and his power in the Spirit. We become the company of Jesus. It is in his name or power that we hope. In the early years of the Church Christians were known as those over whom the name of Jesus had been pronounced, that is, those who have entered under Jesus’ patronage and who trust in his name.
Responsorial Psalm: 118:1,8-9,21-23,26,28-29. The stone which the builders rejected has become the corner stone.
The psalm today is the source of Peter’s reference to GOD’s promise concerning Jesus. Jesus is the rejected stone that becomes the cornerstone (the first and foremost building block) of GOD’s new edifice. GOD and divine wisdom are praised for surpassing the plans of mere mortals. GOD can make powerful things happen even when mortals block GOD’s intended designs. Trusting completely in GOD and GOD’s objectives can lead to eternal Goodness and kindness and joy and salus.
Second Reading: 1 John 3:1-2. We shall be like God because we shall see him as he really is.
Commentary: From beginning to end this first letter of John is a meditation on Christian love and its implications. The innermost motivation of all Christian activity is the awareness that we have been raised to sonship of God and to being co-heirs of God with Jesus. Both women and men have been raised to this sonship, for only sons (not daughters) could inherit. This sonship enables us to call God ‘Father’. When Paul speaks of this he uses the Aramaic word ‘Abba’ as a sort of talisman and guarantee that we can pray ‘Father’, using the same address as Jesus himself used. ‘Abba’ is not a children’s word like ‘Daddy’, as has sometimes been supposed, but is the expression of a warm and responsible adult relationship. Just as Jesus’ sonship of the Father consisted in doing perfectly the Father’s will, and being about the Father’s business in his whole life, so the Christian, spurred on by this relationship, is drawn to a heartfelt obedience. This must be a challenge to us: is the mainspring of our activity to act as sons of the Father, being truly his representatives in the world and striving to bring his will to completion in all that we do?
Gospel: John 10:11-18. The good shepherd is one who lays down his life for his sheep.
Commentary: Each year on this Sunday there is a reading from John about the Good Shepherd. To think of ourselves as woolly and cuddly sheep, obedient to the shepherd, would be a mistake. Sheep are renowned as being silly, contradictory creatures, always starting off in the wrong direction, getting themselves into tangles and difficulties. In the Holy Land they are scraggy beasts, pastured on rocky and often dangerous ground, amid boulders and rocky cliffs, threatened by wild animals and marauders. It was not simply a matter of the shepherd sitting on a rock and idly playing his pipe. He needed to be on the alert to save the sheep from hurting themselves. So Jesus as the good shepherd is kept well occupied by our foibles, our stubbornness, our mistakes and our fears. Again, as in the other two readings, there is the reassurance of a close relationship with the Father. Jesus knows us intimately, just as he knows the Father. It is questionable whether in real life a shepherd should lay down his life for his sheep: what would happen to the remainder of the flock? But it is an expression of his whole-hearted devotion to the sheep, and an assimilation to the case of Jesus.
Reflection: Do you know the peace and security of the Good Shepherd who watches over his own? The Old Testament often speaks of God as shepherd of his people, Israel. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want (Psalm 23:1). Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! (Psalm 80:1) We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture (Psalm 100:3). The Messiah is also pictured as the shepherd of God's people: He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms (Isaiah 40:11). Jesus says he is the Good Shepherd who will risk his life to seek out and save the stray sheep (Matthew 18:12, Luke 15:4). He is the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls (1 Peter 2:25).
Jesus is the Good Shepherd and Guardian of our souls: Jesus made three promises to his followers. He promised them everlasting life. If they accept him and follow him, they will have the life of God in them. Jesus also promised them a life that would know no end. Death would not be the end but the beginning; they would know the glory of indestructible life. Jesus promised a life that was secure. Jesus said that nothing would snatch them out of his hand, not even sorrow and death, since he is everlasting life itself. Our lives are safe in his hands.
Do you listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd who calls you to himself? The words which Jesus spoke upset many of the Jewish leaders. How could he speak with the same authority which God spoke and claim to be equal with God? He must either be insane or divine. Unfortunately some thought he was mad even though he cured a man who was blind from birth. We are faced with the same choice. Either Jesus is who he claims to be - the Son of God and Savior of the world - or the world's greatest deluder! We cannot be indifferent to his claim. For those who accept him as Lord and Savior he offers the peace and security of unending life and joy with God. Do you know the peace and security of a life fully submitted to Christ?
Cyril of Alexander, a 5th century church father comments on Jesus as our Good Shepherd: "He shows in what manner a shepherd may be proved good; and He teaches that he must be prepared to give up his life fighting in defense of his sheep, which was fulfilled in Christ. For man has departed from the love of God, and fallen into sin, and because of this was, I say, excluded from the divine abode of paradise, and when he was weakened by that disaster, he yielded to the devil tempting him to sin, and death following that sin he became the prey of fierce and ravenous wolves. But after Christ was announced as the True Shepherd of all men, He laid down his life for us (1 John 3:16), fighting for us against that pack of inhuman beasts.
"He bore the Cross for us, that by His own death he might destroy death. He was condemned for us, that He might deliver all of us from the sentence of punishment: the tyranny of sin being overthrown by our faith: fastening to the Cross the decree that stood against us, as it is written (Colossians 2:14). Therefore as the father of sin had as it were shut up the sheep in hell, giving them to death to feed on, as it is written in the psalms (Ps. Xlviii.16), He died for us as truly Good, and truly our Shepherd, so that the dark shadow of death driven away He might join us to the company of the blessed in heaven; and in exchange for abodes that lie far in the depths of the pit, and in the hidden places of the sea, grant us mansions in His Father's House above. Because of this he says to us in another place: Fear not, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you a kingdom (Luke 12:32)."
Do you listen attentively to the voice of the Good Shepherd and obey his word? "Lord Jesus, you are the Good Shepherd who keeps watch over our lives. May I be ever attentive to your voice and submit fully to your wise rule for my life. Draw me near to you that I may always find peace and joy in your presence."
The life of a sheep: “I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” —John 10:11 “I am the Good Shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me.” —John 10:14
Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and we are His sheep. To be called a sheep is not a compliment. Sheep are sheepish, that is, backward and timid. Sheep can’t even eat grass without destroying the field where the grass grows. That’s one of the reasons they need shepherds to move them elsewhere. When Jesus called us “sheep,” He implied that we weren’t just weak but helpless. Apart from Him we can do nothing (Jn 15:5).
We sheep, who are so helpless, have a hard time living under the easiest circumstances. What will we do in difficult and dangerous circumstances? Thieves are coming “only to steal and slaughter and destroy” us (Jn 10:10). Wolves are trying to snatch, scatter, and kill us (Jn 10:12). Some of these wolves are in sheep’s clothing (Mt 7:15), so some of those we consider our friends are actually our enemies. Furthermore, some of our shepherds upon whom we are counting to protect us are merely hired hands who will abandon us and leave us to be slaughtered (Jn 10:12).
We sheep are simple, weak, and in a “heap of trouble.” Our only Hope is Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Follow Jesus.
Prayer: Jesus, Good Shepherd, lead me through the valley of the shadow of death (Ps 23:4, RSV-CE). “See what love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called children of God! Yet that is what we are.” —1 Jn 3:1. Praise Jesus, Who holds “the keys of death and the nether world” (Rv 1:18). Praise You, Good Shepherd, that no one can snatch us out of Your hand (Jn 10:28). Alleluia forever!
The personal action for today: How have I experienced the loving concern of GOD, my Abba-Father-Loving Parent? Has the love of my own parent(s) helped me to reflect on GOD’s love for me? What does it mean for me that Jesus is the Good Shepherd? Have I always followed the lead of the Good Shepherd? How can I help others experience the loving care that GOD has for them by the way I treat them?