FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER, April 22, 2018

GOOD SHEPHERD/VOCATION SUNDAY

1. Shepherd with a Heart
2. I Know Mine and Mine Know Me

Note. Good Shepherd Sunday is a world-wide prayer day for vocations. Today’s Mass fits the theme very well. Those who want to concentrate entirely on the theme of vocations today could use a Mass for vocations, from among the Masses and readings for various needs in the Sacramentary and the Lectionary.

Introduction by the Celebrant

1. A Shepherd with a Heart
We expect of people in charge of others, especially in tasks of leadership and service, that they are dedicated to those who rely on them: doctors, social workers, priests and ministers. For those who are Christians, the model is no other than Jesus, the Good Shepherd. He had a heart for people and was willing to go as far as laying down his life for them. All those responsible for others should be like him: not functionaries, not people who just do their job, but, whether lay or ordained, pastors, that is, literally, shepherds, shepherds with a heart, totally dedicated even at great cost to themselves. And let us not forget that we are all entrusted with and to one another. May Jesus among us inspire and guide us.

2. I Know Mine And Mine Know Me
We are pleasantly surprised when after many years someone recognizes us and calls us by our name. “He or she still remembers me,” you say. Jesus assures us today: “I know those who are mine and mine know me.” Through Jesus, one of our own, God knows us and loves us and calls us his children. With gratitude we celebrate this Eucharist with Jesus, our Good Shepherd, who knows us and loves us.

First Reading: Saved in the Name of the Risen Jesus
Peter professes without fear his faith in the risen Christ, in whose name he has saved a crippled man from his disability. It is the name by which we are all saved.

1 Reading ACTS 4:8-12
Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said:
“Leaders of the people and elders:
If we are being examined today
about a good deed done to a cripple,
namely, by what means he was saved,
then all of you and all the people of Israel should know
that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean
whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead;
in his name this man stands before you healed.
He is the stone rejected by you, the builders,
which has become the cornerstone.
There is no salvation through anyone else,
nor is there any other name under heaven
given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”

Responsorial Psalm 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28, 29
R. (22) The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.
or:
R. Alleluia.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in man.
It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in princes.
R.

I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me
and have been my saviour.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
R.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD;
we bless you from the house of the LORD.
I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me
and have been my saviour.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
for his kindness endures forever.
R.

Second Reading: Really Children of God!
That we are God’s children is not just a beautiful thought but the deepest reality, because we are united with Jesus, God’s beloved Son. Only when we shall see God will we be capable of understanding this.

2 Reading 1 John 3:1-2
Beloved:
See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.
The reason the world does not know us
is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.

Alleluia John 10:14
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the good shepherd, says the Lord;
I know my sheep, and mine know me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Jesus, Our Good Shepherd
The image of a Shepherd and his sheep is not familiar to all of us, but we can understand this: Jesus has given his life for us; as our risen Lord he leads and unites us, not by force but by a personal knowledge of and love for each of us.

Gospel John 10:11-18
Jesus said:
“I am the good shepherd.
A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
A hired man, who is not a shepherd
and whose sheep are not his own,
sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away,
and the wolf catches and scatters them.
This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd,
and I know mine and mine know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I will lay down my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice,
and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
This is why the Father loves me,
because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.
I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.
This command I have received from my Father.”

Commentary:
Animals have tremendous evocative power, as you can see in the literature of every country. Perhaps they represent some lost part of humanity, incarnated in great simplicity in this animal or that: the faithfulness of a dog, the gentleness of a dove, and so on. Sheep seem to have no defense system at all, and they never attack another animal: so they make innocence visible for us. Since domestication they have relied very fully on the shepherd. Jesus looked and the crowds of people and to him they looked “like sheep without a shepherd” (Mk 6:34). In today’s reading, he calls himself “the good shepherd…who gives his life for the sheep.” This mention of the shepherd’s death seems very sudden and unexpected, but in its own setting perhaps it was less so. W. M. Thomson wrote, “A poor faithful fellow last spring, between Tiberias and Tabor, instead of fleeing, actually fought three Bedouin robbers until he was hacked to pieces with their khanjars, and died among the sheep he was defending.” When the Church is being what it was meant to be, it has a care for the lost sheep: “the weak, the sick, the wounded, the strayed, the lost…”

Blessing
God loves us. Of this we are sure.
We are no strangers to him.
He is near to us in all we do.
Let us not be strangers to one another
but people who build up one another
with the blessing of almighty God:
the Father who loves us,
his Son who leads us as our shepherd,
and the Holy Spirit who unites us. R/ Amen.