The Good Shepherd’s Commitments to us: The Fourth Sunday of Easter 2024

                              The Good Shepherd’s Commitments to us:

The Fourth Sunday of Easter 2024 

April 21, 2024

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Acts 4:8-12; Psalm 118; 1 John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18

 

Peter speaks boldly to the religious leaders who rejected Jesus and put him to death. He no longer fears for his life and is compelled to tell others about Jesus, who was vindicated by God. He is a witness to the power of the Resurrection when, in the name of Jesus, he heals a crippled man. By calling out the religious authorities, he rejects the old Judaism because the faith is now fulfilled in the person of Jesus. Peter offers the old leaders a choice, but for the Apostles, there is no choice, there is no going back. The community of faith that Jesus of Nazareth began continues with Jesus the Christ as its good pastor. 

 

The second reading punctuates Peter’s point. The community has been brought into the family of God as sons and daughters, who will receive protection and guidance from the risen Jesus. They continue to gather around him as they share stories and break bread. Though they continue to see themselves as Jews, they realize a segment of the old establishment resists their message, whether it is hardness of heart, ideology, or their lack of knowing a personal God. The Risen Jesus continues to make this personal God known to those who gather and worship. They have been made into a new family.

 

This new family, of which you are a part, has the responsibility to be good pastors to those in your circle. You must show others the way of Jesus, as co-shepherds. How does a bad shepherd act today? He creates Christian nationalism, he creates ideologies of Christian superiority, and he creates a clericalized lifestyle. You, as co-shepherds must help others find their way, and lead them to an authentic, genuine care for all people.

 

I would like to talk about God’s care for this family, but in the words of a priest from the Archdiocese of Boston. Fr. Ron Coyne reflected upon his experience of God and summed up God’s commitments to us in ten points. I simply want to read them to you. I hope you hear them as if God is personally speaking them to you. 

 

1.     I love you unconditionally. You can’t earn that love, and you can’t lose that love. 

 

2.    I accompany each of you on your life journey, and I am aware of the pain and joy in your life. I share your pain and I celebrate your joy.

 

3.    There is no limit to my forgiveness. If you are open to the need to transform your life, you will experience and understand that forgiveness.

 

4.    You live in my presence now and you will live in my presence after you die.

 

5.    I would never bring about the destruction of the world. If tragedy happens, life will go on.

 

6.    No organized religion has captured me. I will continue to avail myself to the world, and your knowledge of me in this lifetime will never be complete.

 

7.    Evil has nothing to do with my plans. It is a part of life that offers us choices. Good will always outlast evil in the world. 

 

8.    I give you all of creation to accompany you on your journey of life. Creation is as sacred to me as your life is. You are to care for each other. Creation is here to enhance your life, and you are the stewards of creation.

 

9.    You will know if a religion is being true to my covenant if it unites humanity. If it is divisive, it does not know me.

 

10.  The poor, the disadvantaged, and those with the least opportunities among you are sacred to me, and your response to their story is indicative to how well you know me.

 

These are the words of the Good Shepherd. These are the words you must bring to others who are seeking the way, the truth, and the life. These are words of hope.

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

Monday: (Acts 11) The Apostles include the Gentiles into the community after solemn deliberation. Peter lifts the Jewish dietary laws for them declaring that, “God granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too.” 

 

Tuesday: (Acts 11) Those who had been dispersed since the persecution that followed Stephen’s stoning began proclaiming the story of Jesus Christ to their new communities. The number of converts increased dramatically.  

 

Wednesday: (Acts 12) The word of God continued to spread and the number of disciples grew. At Antioch during prayer, the Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

 

Thursday: (Acts 13) In Perga in Pamphylia, Paul stood up and told the story of God’s deliverance of the chosen people from bondage and slavery. God’s work continued in the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

 

Friday (Acts 13) The whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord, but strict Jews opposed Paul and Barnabas and claimed they told the wrong story. 

 

Saturday (Acts 13) The Gentiles were delighted when Paul and Barnabas opened scripture for them and those them of their inclusion as God’s elect. Salvation was accessible to them too.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (John 10) The Good Shepherd tales continues as Jesus describes to his friends the characteristics of a self-interested person who pretends to be a shepherd. The sheep know and trust the voice of the good shepherd. 

 

Tuesday: (John 10) During the feast of the Dedication, Jesus declares he is the good shepherd and that he and the Father are one.

 

Wednesday (John 10) Jesus cries out, “Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me.” Jesus speaks and acts of behalf of the Father.

 

Thursday (John 13) Jesus makes “I am” statements and he shows he does the work of the Father when after he washes the feet of the disciples, he says, “I am.” 

 

Friday (John 14) In his farewell discourse, Jesus consoles his friends. He tells them that the is going away but will soon return to take away their fear. 

 

Saturday (John 14) He reassures that that since they know the mind and heart of Jesus, they also know the mind and heart of the Father.   

 

Saints of the Week

 

April 21: Anselm, bishop and doctor (1033-1109), was a monastic abbot in Normandy who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093 after the Norman conquest of England in 1066 when the English hierarchy was displaced. Church-state relations peppered his term, but he became known to the church because of his theological and philosophical treatises, mostly for his assertion about the existence of God – an idea greater than that which no other idea can be thought. His method of theology is summed up in “faith seeking understanding.”

 

April 22: Jesuits honor Mary as the Mother of the Society of Jesus. In the Gesu church in Rome, a painting of Our Lady of the Way (Maria della Strada) is portrayed to represent Jesuit spirituality. Mary had been a central figure to Ignatius’s spirituality. In 1541, seven months after papal approval of the Jesuit Order and two weeks after his election as the first general, Ignatius celebrated Mass at Our Lady’s altar in the basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls in Rome.

 

April 23: George, martyr (d. 303), was killed in Lydda, Palestine. He may have been a Roman soldier who organized a Christian community in what is now Iran (Urmiah). He became part of the Middle Ages imagination for his ideal of Christian chivalry and is thought to have slain a dragon. He was sent to Britain on an imperial expedition. He became the patron of England (and of Crusaders) and the nation adopted George’s Arms, a red cross on a white background, which is still part of the British flag.

 

April 23: Adalbert, bishop and martyr (956-997), was Bohemian-born who was consecrated bishop of Prague amidst fierce political opposition. He was exiled and became a Benedictine monk in Rome that he used as a base to preach missions in Poland, Prussia, Hungary, and Russia. He is named the "Apostle to the Slavs." He was killed in Gdansk, Poland.

April 24: Fidelis of Sigmaringen, priest and martyr (1578-1622), was a canon lawyer from Swabia, Germany who became a Capuchin Franciscan  in Switzerland in 1612. Prior to priesthood, he tutored nobles in France, Italy and Spain and helped interpret legislation that served the poor. He was known as the "lawyer for the poor." He was later appointed to the challenging task of preaching to the Protestants in Switzerland, where he was killed for being an agent for the king. He was the head of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in anti-Catholic hostilities. He was accused of being the king's political agent and was assaulted and killed. 

 

April 25: Mark, the Evangelist is the author of the earliest Gospel and is associated with Peter whom he heard preach. Mark was a member of the first Christian community in Jerusalem and his mother owned a house in the city that was used as a place of prayer during Peter's imprisonment under Herod Agrippa I. He was originally a companion of Paul and Barnabas having traveled with them back to Antioch in Syria. Later, they brought him along as their assistant on a missionary journey. He is associated with Peter’s ministry later in life. He was sent to Alexandria and formed a church that is now known as the Coptic Orthodox Church.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• April 21, 1926. Fr. General Ledochowski sent out a letter De Usu Machinae Photographicae. It stated that cameras should belong to the house, not the individual. Further, they should not be used for recreation or time spent on trifles rather than for the greater glory of God. 
• April 22, 1541. Ignatius and his first companions made their solemn profession of vows in the basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls. 
• April 23, 1644. A General Chapter of the Benedictines condemned the calumny that St Ignatius was not the real author of the Spiritual Exercises. A monk had earlier claimed that the content was borrowed from a work by Garzia Cisneros. 
• April 24, 1589. At Bordeaux, the Society was ordered to leave the city. It had been falsely accused of favoring the faction that was opposed to King Henry III. 
• April 25, 1915. Pierre Rousselot, Professor at the Institute Catholique in Paris, is wounded and taken prisoner during World War I. 
• April 26, 1935. Lumen Vitae, center for catechetics and religious formation was founded in Brussels. 

April 27, 1880. On the occasion of the visit of Jules Ferry, French minister of education, to Amiens, France, shouts were raised under the Jesuit College windows: "Les Jesuites a la guillotine."