Fourth Sunday in Easter Time – Year B
Posté par diaconos le 20 avril 2021
The Good Shepherd is one of the words with which Jesus identifies himself (Jn 10:11 [archive]). It is one of the seven words I am… found only in the Gospel according to John and refers to an aspect of Jesus’ mission: the one who gathers, guides, seeks (the lost) and gives his life for others. He feeds his sheep or brings back the lost sheep. The iconographic theme of the Good Shepherd was widely used first in ancient Greek art, where it was applied to the criophorous Hermes, but also to the offering bearers, and then in Roman art, where it was particularly used in a funerary context, according to formulas that were fully inspired by the nascent Christian art1 . This theme is said to have had Sumerian prototypes2. Christian iconography first depicts Christ as the « Lamb of God », carried by John the Baptist, and then Jesus becomes the Good Shepherd who gathers the lost sheep. He is traditionally depicted wearing a bandage, dressed in exomid, and holding a staff, a milking vessel (mulctra) or a syrinx. This theme has inspired many Christian artists.
From the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John
At that time Jesus said: « I am the good shepherd, the true shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep. The hireling shepherd is not the shepherd, the sheep are not his: if he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away; the wolf seizes them and scatters them. This shepherd is a hired hand, and the sheep do not really count for him.
I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep, and my sheep know me, as the Father knows me, and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep.
I have other sheep which are not of this fold: these also I must lead. They will listen to my voice; there will be one flock and one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me: because I lay down my life to receive it again. No one can take it from me : I give it of myself. I have the power to give it, I also have the power to receive it again: this is the commandment I have received from my Father. (Jn 10:11-18)
I am the Good Shepherd
« I am the Good Shepherd, the true Shepherd, the true shepherd gives his life for his sheep. « (Jn 10:11) It was throughout his life that Jesus gave himself. During his entire earthly existence, he never stopped giving and giving of himself. We see this in his daily life in Nazareth, in his preaching, in his service to his disciples and in his welcome to all those who came across his path with their distress and suffering.
The good shepherd is also the one who knows his sheep and loves them. For Christ, the shepherd of all humanity, we are his most precious possession. Jesus asks us to love one another as he has loved us. This means that we must also take the time to get to know the people on our path and those entrusted to us.
We cannot truly love those we do not seek to know or those we deliberately ignore. It is through personal contact and patient dialogue that we can better understand those in need and the time spent getting to know them and the Lord is a precious time given with love.
Let us be collaborators with Christ, the shepherd of humanity. It is he who calls us and sends us. One day we will have to give an account of this responsibility that has been entrusted to us. The good shepherd is also the one who gathers his flock: when he goes to the mountains, it is important that the flock stays together; its safety is at stake.
In telling us this, Jesus speaks to us of this divided world in which we live. Christ has placed his Church there. He wants it to be united and in solidarity. « I have other sheep which are not of this fold: these also I must lead. They will listen to my voice: there will be one flock and one shepherd. » Jesus counts on us to participate in this work of gathering.
Let us contemplate Jesus in his love for his Father and for all humanity, let us contemplate him in his obedience, in his poverty, in his compassion for every man and woman, especially the poorest, the excluded, the marginalized, those who suffer most. Let us fix our eyes on him: he knows us better than we know ourselves. With Jesus, the Good Shepherd, let us in turn reaffirm our full availability to carry out the Father’s will day by day.
May this Eucharist that we celebrate this Sunday stimulate in us the desire to live in the manner of Jesus, the Good Shepherd! May it allow us to resemble more and more this Jesus, who never stops giving his life for all! Let us listen to the call, his call through the needs of our brothers and sisters who cry out to us.
How great and wonderful is the love with which the Father fills us in his Son, the Good Shepherd. He wanted us to be called children of God, beloved children of God. (2nd reading) On this Sunday when we are invited to pray for vocations, let us raise our eyes to Jesus, the Good Shepherd, and pray with confidence and insistence that he will give his Church pastors who seek to know people better, to love them, and who are concerned for those who are not yet in the Church.
Deacon Michel Houyoux
Links to other Christian websites
◊ Young catholics : click here to read the paper → 4th Sunday of Easter – Year B (2021)
◊ Father Hanly : click here to read the paper → Homily for 4th Sunday of Easter, Year B
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Video Homily by Father Terrance ; « The Good Shepherd »
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