Fourth Sunday of Easter (C)

Good Shepherd Sunday

May 12, 2019

Readings:

First Reading: Acts 13: 14, 43-52

Psalm: 100 “We are his people, the sheep of his flock.”

Second Reading: Revelation 7: 9, 14b-17

Gospel reading according to John 10: 27-30

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Homily

Jesus said to Simon Peter, on the last week’s gospel (cf. John 21: 1-19, Third Sunday of Easter (C)), to feed his lambs, tend his sheep, and feed his sheep.  By doing these, he (Simon Peter) shows his love to him (Jesus Christ), the Good Shepherd.  “Jesus said: ‘My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me’.” (John 10: 27). As a Good Shepherd he loves his sheep.  He knows them while his sheep listen to his voice and follow him wherever he leads them, especially in a green pasture, where there is plenty of grass (food).  The sheep only listen to the voice of their shepherd for they are familiar with his voice.  Jesus, as Good Shepherd “he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart"  (Easter Antiphon 2, Week III, Thursday, Morning Prayer).  They follow only their shepherd for they know they are safe with him for they are protected by him.   These lambs, these sheep are now turning over to Simon Peter as their new shepherd.  So also with Simon Peter, they as well as we must listen also to Simon Peter, as theirs and our leader, like our Lord Jess Christ the Good Shepherd.  As his sheep, his disciples, we hear his voice and we obey him by following him, his will and command.

Jesus, as a Good Shepherd, he is ready to protect his sheep from wild wolves that devour his sheep mercilessly. He is ready to give his life for his sheep and lambs, so that his sheep and lambs might increase in numbers and grow healthy, fit and strong.  As his sheep and lambs, we also are loved and protected of our Good Shepherd, of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He wants us to have an eternal life, a life to the fullest.  “’I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish’.” (John 10: 28).  He gives us good quality life, happy life, prosperous life, saintly life and he never allows us to perish, to have a hard life, distressful life, miserable life, to be snatch and taken away from him.  What he thinks and feels is only our goodness, free from harm, free from desertion and rejection (and abandonment).   As his followers, we receive from him eternal life and with him we will not go astray.

He never allows us to be taken away from Him or snatch away from him.  He does not want us to go astray either.  What he wants is that we are always in his loving and merciful arms and in his blessed hands.  “’No one can take them out of my hand’.” (John 10: 28).  All He wants is that we are closer to him, safe and sound.  No one can take us in his hands.  He calls us and gathers us in his one, holy, apostolic, catholic (or universal) community, as to his sheep and lambs call and gather into one flock, into one sheepfold.  

The same with God the Father, He does not allow us to be taken away and lost in his hand, for He loves us, the same love the Son has for us his sheep.  “’My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand’.” (John 10: 29).  His Father and our Father takes good care of us.  God the Fathers handles us and entrusted us to his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to watch out of us in all dangers and harms, which God trusted and believed in him, as what the Father said about him, “This is my beloved Son whom I trust, listen to him,” that he can defend us.  No one can take us away from the love of God and from the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God the Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in the Father.  We cannot separate the Father from the Son, and the Son from the Father, for they are one.  “’The Father and I are one’.” (John 10: 30). Jesus and God the Father are one, in mind, in heart, in their whole being.  Both of them think about us; they feed and tend us for they care for us and love us.  As the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves us, so the Father also loves us.