HOMILY FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR A. (6)

HOMILY FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR A.

THEME: SYMBOLS OF A GOOD SHEPHERD.

BY: Fr. Jude Nnadi.

Acts 2:14, 36 – 41; 1 Peter 2: 20 – 25; John 10:1-10

“AMEN, AMEN, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers. I am the gate of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they may have life and have it more abundantly” (Jn 10).

Brethren, once again, we sing one of the most intense hymns of the Psalter: “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want; in verdant (green) pastures he gives me repose”. Our liturgy today is filled with symbols of a good shepherd. These symbols are loaded with meanings that often go beyond our understanding. A shepherd in the Ancient East was not only a guide of the flock but a life partner in a total way, the one who is constantly ready to share with the agony and pains, thirst, the heat of the summer, the cold of the night with his sheep.

Around this image, Jesus constructs a parable we could call “the parable of the shepherd and brigand” which only John gives us a narrative. Jesus presents himself as a good shepherd leading his flock towards the sheep gate, one of the gates of the Temple of Jerusalem, and while he leads them, looked intently at Jewish worshipers who pass through the eastern gate to enter the courtyard of the temple to meet their supreme shepherd in worship. And immediately exclaims “I am the gate for the sheep”, that is, the true way, which puts you in contact with the eternal; I am the Shepherd, the Lord. The “I am”, among other expressions had a particular meaning for his Jewish audience. It evokes those famous words addressed to Moses by God himself from the burning bush: “I am who I am”, a mysterious definition of God.

Therefore, this gospel is, first, a hymn of the divinity of Christ. His action towards his sheep, that is, the faithful, is expressed through pastoral verbs. He “enters through the gate”, alluding to his intimacy with the sheep. His is a personal call (calls each by name). He has a specific message for each one (“by name”). Also, there is a speaker-listener dialogue (“they hear his voice”). The divine shepherd “leads out” his sheep in exodus towards fertile pastures, he “walks ahead” as a guide, while the sheep “follow”, and this verb “to follow” in the biblical language is a verb for discipleship. In this way of discipleship, the sheep “have life in abundance”.

This parable is not only a hymn of the Good Shepherd but also has some dark narrative of the brigand. That dangerous friend of the night who wants to take control of the sheep, entering not through the sheep gate, and sowing seeds of disaster, panic, division among the sheep”. Now those verbs of life that mark the action of the good shepherd are replaced by those of death the brigand brings with him; steal, slaughter and destroy. Even if our life in the past has been stolen, shattered, messed up by that false shepherd who “feeds on milk, clothes himself in wool, kills the fattest sheep but does not feed the flock” (Ez. 34:3), we now have ample time to return, to follow Jesus our Good Shepherd “who goes in search of the lost sheep, who binds up the wounded ones and heals the sick, feeding them all with justice”, (Ez. 34:16), that issue from the supper-abundance of his love and mercy.

FOR MORE HOMILIES CLICK >>>>>