2024 FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (Cycle B – usus recentior)
20/21 April
This Sunday, the Church places before us the image of Christ the Good Shepherd, the shepherd of our souls. The Gospel recounts for us the wonderful parable in which Christ himself is shown as the Good Shepherd who knows each one of his sheep, who give His life for them and snatched them from the jaws of the marauding wolf. This is one of the “I am” statements of Jesus in which he reveals some image of God that speaks not only of His nature, but also about our relationship with Him. I am the Bread of Life, I am the True Vine, I am the Light of the World – he shows us that he nourishes us, that we are part of Him, that He shines light that we may know ourselves truly. I am the Good Shepherd? Shepherds have already played an important role in the Gospel story, symbolising the poor and humble as the first recipients of the Good News of the Incarnation. However, the image of the Good Shepherd as it appears in today’s Gospel as one of the “I am” statements of Jesus is making a specific connection with an Old Testament Prophecy. Jesus is describing himself as the true shepherd who fulfils Ezekiel’s prophecy foretelling for Israel a shepherd from the end of time who was to deliver his people.
Ezekiel’s prophecy about the shepherd is found in Ezekiel 34. In this passage, the Lord condemns the leaders of Israel for failing to care for His people like good shepherds should. Instead of tending to the flock, they exploited and neglected them. The prophecy speaks of God Himself taking on the role of the shepherd, promising to rescue His sheep from the hands of those who mistreated them. God says He will search for His lost sheep, bring them back to their land, and care for them Himself. He will feed them, provide them with good pasture, and give them rest.
Now, in the Gospel, Jesus identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. He fulfils the role that Ezekiel’s prophecy speaks of, caring for His people with love and self-sacrifice. Like the shepherd in Ezekiel’s prophecy, Jesus demonstrates compassion and care for those who are lost, marginalized, and mistreated. He seeks out the lost and brings them back into the fold. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus brings about the ultimate rescue and restoration for God’s people. He provides forgiveness for sins and brings reconciliation between humanity and God, fulfilling the promise of a new covenant foretold by the prophets. Ezekiel’s prophecy also speaks of God establishing a new kingdom where His people will live in safety and prosperity. This finds fulfilment in Jesus’ teachings about the Kingdom of God, which He inaugurates through His ministry and will ultimately bring to completion upon His return.
This Sunday of the Easter season is called Good Shepherd Sunday because the Gospel reading invites us to reflect on Jesus as the Good Shepherd. The reading is from the tenth chapter of John’s Gospel. Today’s reading falls between the stories of Jesus’ healing of the man born blind and the raising of Lazarus. Following the controversy that ensued when Jesus healed the man born blind, Jesus directs his allegory about the sheep and the shepherd toward the Jewish religious leaders of his time, the Pharisees.
Throughout John’s Gospel the Pharisees fail to accept Jesus’ ministry and teaching. They show themselves to be “robbers and thieves” because they try to lead the sheep without entering through the gate, Jesus. The relationship between the sheep and their shepherd is based on familiarity. Sheep recognize their shepherd and will not follow a stranger. At the end of the day, shepherds lead their sheep from pastures to a common gated area called a sheepfold. There, one shepherd protects all of the sheep until the next day when each shepherd returns to lead his own sheep to pasture. As shepherds move among the sheep, the sheep follow only their shepherd.
So, this teaching of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, lies between two contrasted stories – the Pharisaic reaction to the healing of the man born blind, where those who claim to lead the flock remain unfamiliar, detached, self-serving in their application of the Law; and the response of Martha and Mary to Jesus in their trust that the Lord is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and remaining close to him is the answer to the most painful and perplexing moment in their life. Through this pain, and by allowing the Lord to be the one who walks with them in their pain, they experience a literal resurrection of the brother. God brings something new, something unforeseen and seemingly impossible out of this terrible experience.
So, this reading invites us to reflect on a few things: discipleship, vocation, and leadership.
- Discipleship: We are called to be disciples like sheep. That is, to follow where the Master leads, and also to have such a familiarity with His voice that we know when we hear it (and know when it is a different voice). This familiarity comes from immersing ourselves in prayer and the Word of God, particularly the Gospels wherein we hear the words and teaching of Our Lord. The more we read and hear this Word, the more we internalise his manner of speaking, responding, calling, correcting, and the more readily we will recognise the voice of the Lord in our lives.
- Vocation: When we are able to recognise the voice of the Shepherd, we will be able to hear also when he calls us. Our vocation to a state of life, be it priesthood or the religious life, the single life, or marriage and family life, is a call to participate in the shepherding of the flock. It is a call to introduce others to the Shepherd.
- Leadership: We are challenged by this reading to consider how we act as leaders – be it in our families, communities, workplaces, schools. The image of leadership that we as Christians aspire to is that of the Good Shepherd, the one who leads with compassion, sacrifice, and gentleness. The one who would seek out the lost and lay down his life for his sheep.
- Leadership in others: We are also invited to consider how we judge the leadership of others. This is particularly important in the month preceding our national elections. Perhaps the image of a gentle, self-sacrificing leader is not one we easily find amongst our politicians, but, as Christians, we unapologetically and unequivocally use the Good Shepherd as the only benchmark of leadership. We must shun all self-serving, self-aggrandising thieves and robbers, the corrupt, the violence-inciting, the ones who enrich themselves at the expense of the poor and vulnerable. We must look for and support those who lead with the good of the sheep as their drive and who sacrifice that the flock may be safe and strong.
Christ’s sheepfold is the Church. In the Church, He bestows on us His life in the Sacraments, His word in the teaching that she gives us, all the riches of His grace to light up on our way and uphold our steps as the Shepherd of our souls. Appointed to lead the flock, Peter gave his life for those entrusted to his care, an ever since then, the priestly ministry has assured the continuous presence in the Church of Him who remains the true Shepherd of our souls. Me we always clearly hear the voice of our Good Shepherd calling us to the place where he will care for us and protect us. AMEN