4th Sunday of Easter
This weekend we celebrate the 4th Sunday of Easter also known as Good Shepherd Sunday. The image of the good shepherd is a deep revelation of Christ’s sacrificial love and commitment towards us. Unlike the hired hand who might flee at the first sign of danger, Jesus stands firm, ready to lay down His life for His sheep. This act of ultimate sacrifice is a testament to the depth of His care and concern for us you only have to look at the cross to realise this it’s a love that goes beyond duty or obligation. Jesus wants to be our shepherd, guiding us, protecting us, and leading us to pastures of eternal life. In the Old Testament, the shepherd was a metaphor for the leaders of the people of God. Most often those leaders failed in their responsibilities and many were corrupt. God excoriates the incompetent and sinful leaders who were appointed to shepherd the people which they did not do. With the failures of the leaders of the people, God decided to take on the shepherding role. “For thus says the Lord: I myself will look after and tend my sheep. (Ezekiel 34:11).
In the First Reading – from the acts of the Apostles Peter declared the healing of a man came through Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom they crucified but God raised. He emphasized that salvation can only come through Jesus, the stone the builders rejected that became the cornerstone. In the Responsorial Psalm we acknowledge God’s unfailing kindness, we find solace in His shelter, surpassing human reliance. The once-rejected stone now underpins our faith, a divine act that fills us with awe. Blessed by God’s response and rescue, we celebrate and give thanks for his eternal love and mercy. In the Second Reading we are told that we are already God’s children, loved deeply by the Father. The world doesn’t know us, as it didn’t know Him. In the future, we’ll fully become like Him, seeing Him as He truly is. In this Sundays gospel Jesus likens Israel’s corrupt shepherds to the “hired man who deserts the sheep when danger approaches, leaving them in peril. The hired shepherd may leave the sheep behind but Jesus the Good shepherd the Son of the Father does not leave his sheep. One of the most comforting Psalms which is also a hymn begins with the line: “The Lord is my shepherd.”
It ends with this line: “Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” Goodness and mercy, in the person of Jesus the good Shepherd are with us even now. The Gospel of the Good Shepherd teaches us how to embrace the gift of redemption by hearing and recognizing the voice of Jesus the Good Shepherd. There are numerous voices calling us to believe and practice things that might seem nice, but those voices are not of or from the Lord. We need to tune our ears and hearts into recognizing the voice of truth that comes from the Good Shepherd through the preaching and teaching of the Church. We are his people the sheep of his flock means that we are people who are able to recognize the voice of the Lord and faithfully follow him. On Good shepherd Sunday the Church also invites us to think about and pray for vocations. We pray in a special way for all those young and not so young who have a vocation to the priesthood, Permanent diaconate or the religious life. We pray that in their lives they may be like Christ the Good shepherd who came to give his life as a ransom for many shepherding his people into the sheepfold of God the Father .
Fullerton T 