Gospel: April 21, 2024
April 21, 2024 (Sunday)
4th Week of Easter
(Good Shepherd Sunday)
Psalter: Week 4 / (White)
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 118: 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28, 29 (22)
The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.
1st Reading: Acts 4: 8-1
2Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke up, “Leaders of the people! Elders! It is a fact, that we are being examined today for a good deed done to a cripple. How was he healed? You, and all the people of Israel, must know, that this man stands before you cured, through the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazorean. You had him crucified. But God raised him from the dead. Jesus is the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. There is no salvation in anyone else; for there is no other Name given to humankind, all over the world, by which we may be saved.”
2nd Reading: 1 john 3: 1-2Gospel: John 10: 11-18
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Not so the hired hand, or any other person who is not the shepherd, and to whom the sheep do not belong. They abandon the sheep as soon as they see the wolf coming; then the wolf snatches and scatters the sheep. This is because the hired hand works for pay and cares nothing for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father. Because of this, I give my life for my sheep.
I have other sheep which are not of this fold. These I have to lead as well, and they shall listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, since there is one shepherd.
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 freely. It is mine to lay down and to take up again: this mission I received from my Father.”
Reflection:
Read: Jesus identified himself as the good shepherd. He described the good shepherd as a person who gives his life for the sheep. Jesus compared the good shepherd with the hired hand. The hired hand works for pay, does not care for the sheep, and would not protect the sheep from the wolf. The good shepherd knows his sheep and lays his life for them. Jesus also mentioned the other sheep outside such particular sheepfold. Jesus said that eventually there will be one flock under one shepherd. Jesus, being loved by the Father, emphasized the fact that no one could take his life from him but would lay it down freely.
Reflect: Whenever we would reflect on the passion and death of Jesus, we normally think of a Jesus who was cornered by his enemies and helplessly killed in shame. However, John’s Gospel depicts that Jesus was never stripped of his glory and dignity even during his passion and death. In today’s Gospel, Jesus said it clearly—that no one could take his life away, that he laid it down freely. Therefore, it was a decision made by Jesus. He chose us, laying down his life. Can we also do something good not because we have already run out of choices but because we know that it is the right thing to do?
Pray: Let us pray for guidance that we may be decisive to do what is right.
Act: Let us now decisively change from a consumeristic to a simpler lifestyle.
