April 21 2024.  Fourth Sunday of Easter

GOSPEL   John 10:11-18

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

 

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

 

GOSPEL: John 10:11-18

Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd.

A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

A hired man, who is not a shepherd

and whose sheep are not his own,

sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away,

and the wolf catches and scatters them.

This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd,

and I know mine and mine know me,

just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;

and I will lay down my life for the sheep.

I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.

These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice,

and there will be one flock, one shepherd.

This is why the Father loves me,

because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.

I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.

This command I have received from my Father.”

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

 

SUMMARY

The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep, unlike the mercenary who doesn’t care about them. This discourse follows on the healing by Jesus of a man born blind. The blind man is not just physically healed, but also comes to the spiritual vision of Jesus as Christ and Saviour. Jesus is forging a radical new relationship between the people and God. It is not only the Jewish religious leaders who are fixated with norms and prescriptions. All of us have the tendency to treat God as an outsider who must be placated with our practices and observances. The Good Shepherd, by contrast, is not an outsider of this sort. Because life has many dangers, with many wolves lying in wait, the sheep seek security by entrusting themselves to the hired mercenary. But this is a relationship of convenience only. It will never cross the threshold where the mercenary sacrifices his life for the sheep. Without the salvation that Jesus brings, life is lived by trying to figure out how I can get as much as possible by giving as little as possible. Jesus brings a completely different approach to life! A life that can be given away and still not lost because it is eternal life. The life that the Father gives to the Son is the same life. We tend to always feel fragile and incomplete, but when we follow the Good Shepherd we are liberated from the oppression of fear. We tend to be constantly in a state of self-defence, but when we abandon ourselves with trust into the arms of Our Lord, we experience a change of life. Jesus remarks that he has many other sheep that are not of this fold. How can they too be drawn under his protection? By meeting other sheep (like us hopefully) who have been fed and nurtured by him. When a person has entrusted himself to this Good Shepherd, the results are obvious because his serenity irradiates to others. As St Paul says in the letter to the Romans, for those who are in Christ Jesus there can be no more condemnation - the wolf has no further power. Once we are in Christ, we are no longer seeking to earn the approval of God. A father does not love his son because his son deserves it, but because he is his son. We can live a life that is nourished by the founts of existence, by the waters of life, the life that comes from the Father to us through Jesus. Sometimes we feel abandoned in life. Sometimes we entrust ourselves to mercenaries, to illusory things that bring fleeting comfort or security. As the first reading from St Peter exhorts, let us return to the true shepherd and guardian of our souls.