THE GOOD SHEPHERD

SUNDAY, Fourth Week of Eastertide

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP

Acts 4:8-12; Ps 118:1,8-9,21-23,26,28-29; 1 Jn 3:1-2; Jn 10:11-18

The Good Shepherd laid down his life for his Sheep

St. John called our attention to the great love the Father has lavished on us. This love of the Father is only now very obvious to us because of the resurrection of the Lord. The resurrection has proved beyond doubt that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. By rising from the dead, he proved to us the divine power at work in him that was the object of faith before his death on the cross. The awareness of the Father’s love for us follows our realisation that God gave us his Son to be our redemption. Just as the Church sang in the Easter Exultet, ‘To ramson a slave, you gave away your Son.’ The Father gave the life of his Son in human nature to have us back as his own. “Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us, by letting us be called God’s children; and that is what we are.” We are truly God’s children because of the Spirit of his Son that he sent into our hearts. The Holy Spirit bears witness that we are children deep within each of us. Because this witness or evidence is within, the world is not aware of our status as children of God, just as they were not aware of the Son of Man being the Son of God. But those who believed attain this knowledge and entrust their lives to him as their Shepherd and Saviour.

Our Lord Jesus Christ explains this connection between him and all that the Father has given to him who have come to him in faith. Their coming shows that the Father has drawn them to him, and their exercise of faith in the Son of Man shows that they have come to him following the Father’s will. The Son knows them because they exercise faith in him, which enables them to receive the Spirit of the Son. The presence of the Spirit of the Son in those who believe in Jesus Christ makes them able to hear his voice. What he communicates to them is what he has received from the Father. By sharing what he has received from the Father with them, he makes them his own and the children of God. He leads them by the Spirit he shares with them as their Shepherd. “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd is one who lays down his life for his sheep.” The laying down of his life demonstrates the Father’s love for the sheep entrusted to the Son. The sheep belong to the Father, who has entrusted their safety to the Son. The commandment the Son has received from the Father is the safety of the sheep. “The Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own free will, and as it is in my power to lay it down, so it is in my power to take it up again; and this is the command I have been given by my Father.”

The Son loves the Father and wants to obey his will. In obedience to the Father, he gave up his life for the Sheep. For the love he bears for the Father, he loves the sheep because they are given to him by the Father. He would not want any harm to come to them. This is indeed a circle of love we have found ourselves in God. This is the love St. John is referring to. It is for the safety of the Sheep that authority has been given to the name of the Son of Man. St. Peter witnessed this authority in the first reading. “Rulers of the people, and elders! If you are questioning us today about an act of kindness to a cripple, and asking us how he was healed, then I am glad to tell you all, and would indeed be glad to tell the whole people of Israel, that it was by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the one you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by this name and by no other that this man is able to stand up perfectly healthy, here in your presence today.” The glorification of the name of Jesus Christ is an act of the love of the Father and for the salvation of the sheep. This glory given to the Good Shepherd also comes to the sheep who participate in the Spirit. Our vocation is to become good shepherds in imitation of Jesus Christ our Lord, so that we may be like him when he is revealed.

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, lead us to share in the joys of heaven, so that the humble flock may reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before us.

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