REFLECTION/HOMILY FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR B 21ST APRIL 2024

REFLECTION/HOMILY FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR B  21ST APRIL 2024

Acts 4:8-12; Ps.118; 1Jn.3:1-2; John 10:11-18

 _I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep._ 

Our Vocation to Preach and Practice the Gospel Truth!

This fourth Sunday of Easter is referred to as Good Shepherd Sunday and/or Vocation Sunday. On this day, we conscious pray as well as remind ourselves of the need to pray for Vocations to the Priesthood and Religious life. In a more extensive manner, we reflect on the need and pray for the grace to be faithful to the tenets of our respective vocations. It is the level of our faithfulness to our vocations that determines the general wellbeing of the society. Lack of faithfulness means lack of commitment, which is an indication of selfishness ruling over selflessness. No matter how we defend it, there can be no good end result for unfaithfulness. So, if we honestly want to turn things around for the better, let us get more committed to our respective vocations.

In the gospel reading of today, Jesus emphatically says that he is the Good Shepherd. He explained that he is good to the extent that he is able and willing to lay down his life for the sheep – a sign of total self-giving; self-emptying. Reflecting on Jesus the Good Shepherd avails us the opportunity to reassure ourselves that we have it all in Jesus and we can get it all from Jesus. Today, we must ask ourselves if Jesus the Good Shepherd is our Shepherd. If we have not taken Jesus as our Good Shepherd, then it is because something or someone is convincing us of better shepherding than Jesus. Today, is a day to reflectively discover the lie(s) in such promises, and like the prodigal son, return to the true, one and only Good Shepherd. It is the duty of the Shepherd to direct; it is the obligation of the sheep to follow. We all are following; but the question is: who are we following!

Having Jesus as our Shepherd not only guarantees us the real good, but we also come to learn how to shepherd others according to the mind of Jesus. This means that even as Jesus calls us into this ministry of shepherding, he wants to remain the Shepherd acting in and through us. The ministry of Shepherding according to the mind of Jesus is entirely sacrificial. It involves putting one’s life on the line for the good of others. To shepherd like Jesus, we must allow ourselves be possessed by the Holy Spirit and be ready to defend the truth of the gospel everywhere and anywhere, as well as before anyone.

This is what we find in Peter in the first reading of today. Peter and John had just finished healing a cripple and this brought them before the Sanhedrin. Summoning Peter and John to investigate the miracle that had just happened, ordinarily, was not a bad idea. Today for example, any acclaimed miracle attributed to someone on the road to sainthood, must be investigated for authenticity. When a miracle scales through thorough scrutiny, it means that the miraculous act is beyond any scientific explanation and human comprehension. So, rather than negating, scrutiny is aimed at proving the miracleness of the miracle. Therefore, it is never a sign of lack of faith to investigate miracles. Any acclaimed miracle that evades investigation has not proven its worth, and so, should not be regarded as a miracle.

However, what is unusual about the presence of Peter and John before the Sanhedrin is that the council itself was not open-minded to investigate the miracle but was raged by the fact that Jesus’ disciples are continuing the very things they tried stopping stoping by killing Jesus. The acts of the Apostles were painting the council murderers before the people. The continuity of the ministry of Jesus and the gospel resurrection were proving the failure and powerlessness of the wickedness of the council. This was something the council needed to deal with for the sake of their “reputation”. Since they could kill Jesus, killing the disciples will not be a hard nut to crack. Again, if they are able to intimidate the disciples and have them stop teaching in the name of Jesus, then, those who were beginning to follow the disciples, will be scared away.

So, the situation necessitated the disciples to act as Shepherds for the other followers of Christ. This exactly was what Peter did in this first reading of today. He risked his life defending the truth of the gospel before those who were ardent enemies of the truth. He further “humiliated” them with the truth by inviting them to accept salvation through the name of Jesus that they vehemently stood against. How dare Peter refer to their enemy as their only Saviour! But in doing this, Peter was also strengthening the faith of the believers. He was proving to them that the gospel values was worth dying for. He was practically teaching the believers that Jesus is able to satisfy and recover us from the deadliest act of man. He was showing the people that the Resurrection truly happened; and so, the gospel truth cannot be intimidated.

As shepherds in our homes and other organs of human life, it is our ardent responsibility to courageously uphold right values. See, as a leader, what you uphold by your actions is that will be prevalent amongst the led. Followers will continue to defend the rightness of an action on the ground that their leader is involved. Even when such action is clearly understood as wrong, it will be perceived as permissible because the leader is involved.

Beloved, there is scarcity of good shepherd in the family life, the Church, and the larger society. We seem no longer concerned about what will win us integrity but what will bring us prosperity. We forget too quickly that without integrity, prosperity crumbles. It is not enough to know and do the right thing; we must also be able to teach the right thing too. The values of every society is kept alive through agents of socialization. Any value that is not socialized into the up-coming generation, dies. Similarly, we become responsible for murdering the truth of the gospel when we fail to teach it. Know this: it is our collective vocation to become like the Jesus the Good Shepherd.