Sharing the Word – April 22- 2018 – Fourth Sunday of Easter, Cycle B.
Readings: 1st Reading; Acts 4 : 8 – 12.
Responsorial Psalm; Ps. 117 : 1, 8 – 9, 21 – 23, 26, 28 – 29.
2nd Reading; 1 John 3 : 1 – 2.
Gospel; John 10 : 11 – 18.
In our first reading, Peter and John have been arrested by the Temple officials after the healing of the man who was crippled. Because the event is beginning to attract a large following for them and their message about the Risen Jesus, the religious leaders want to intimidate them and stop them from preaching. This reading gives Peter’s confrontation with these officials as he tells them that it is by the power of Jesus, ‘the Cornerstone’, whom they rejected and who is risen from the dead, that the man has been healed.
This miraculous healing is a good deed but not all good deeds are welcome. Sometimes fierce opposition arises from a good deed, not because it is bad in itself but because it comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. This is one of the reasons why those who give their time and resources to help the needy are called names, knocked down and even killed. Like Peter and John, a good shepherd should be able to risk his life for the sake of his flock.
In the Gospel, we hear Jesus say “I am the Good Shepherd”. A shepherd’s voice and actions are very important to the safety of his responsive flock. Who is a good shepherd? One who guides his flock with love and tenderness, dedicated to protecting them from any dangers. When we say, “the Lord is my shepherd”, I think this is what we mean. That we understand the world to be unpredictable, often terrifying, and that bad and evil people abound, but that the presence of God makes the world seem less frightening. Not that bad things will never happen to us, but that we will never have to face it alone, even as we remain vulnerable. We understand that any good shepherd will give us restrictions, just as our parents would do: do not play on the street, you could get knocked down and end up with some physical problems.
When we imagine the security our parents represented when we were young, we can understand how God is our good shepherd. When we strayed and got injured, our parents did not abandon us. They would keep on to reassure us with love and care, wiping our tears and taking care of our medication and food. This is the reason why we turn to God, our super-parent, who is more than any earthly parent, teacher, or political leader and has the power to put up with us, no matter what we are or have done to annoy him. He bids us to follow His ways not for His sake but for our own good. He grieves for each of us in our afflictions because He is our Shepherd. He does not only grieve when we go astray and hurt, He grieves in all our suffering. He suffers with us when we are cruel to one another, when we hurt and kill one another.
I once read a work of art by one Caroline titled “The knot that saved my marriage”. When I picked it up, I wondered who may have saved her marriage, her parents, friends, in-laws, colleagues, a clergy or just a good Samaritan. She recorded that one day she was having lunch with her guests including a certain Mike and his parents. Mike was an helicopter pilot. During the lunch, Mike and his father started talking about the helicopter. When the father asks him how the helicopter works, Mike said, the whole machine revolved around one knot. Then he asks his Mum whether she could guess how this knot was called and when she could not get the answer right, Mike said, it is called ‘the Jesus Knot’.
During one of my aeronautic lessons, I came across this knot and from all what it does to the helicopter, I understood why Caroline saw the work of the knot in the helicopter to be like the work of Jesus at the center of her marriage. Jesus held her marriage together just as the knot helps the whole machine of the helicopter to function. In every Christian live, the ‘Jesus Knot’ is suppose to be at the center. That is why Peter refers to Jesus in the first reading as the corner stone. Removing such a knot will render the helicopter non-functional, just as removing Him in a Christian life will do. He is the prop of a Christian, where each Christian leans to get support.
The Gospel shows Jesus as the knot, the good Shepherd. In the absence of the shepherd, the flock will scatter and get hurt. As our shepherd, Jesus’ role cannot be overemphasised. Chaos sets in in His absence. Whenever we stray from Him, we are called to come back and He will always, accept and change our lives. Our invitation to Him to come will work in the same way as it worked for the newly weds in Canaan, when He changed water into wine, as it worked for Peter when he invited Him into his home and He cured his mother-in-law, as it worked for the Marys when they invited Him and He raised Lazarus from the dead, as it worked for the Centurion when He cured his daughter.
Even as Jesus is the shepherd to us all, He gives us one task, to shepherd each other. I am into aviation, learning to be able to guide and lead air travelers including all the flight crew, just as the catering staff on flights are there to see to my food needs and those of others. The ground crew at the terminals are there to see to our safe landings and take-offs. The husband is there to take care of his wife and children just as the wife is there with her own share of responsibility, and so are the children’s. All good shepherd work should be done with love. All work is empty if not done with love. Let me share with you all what Kahil Gibran thinks about working with love.
“And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work, and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms from those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half of man’s hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine. Work is love made visible”.
Jesus’ way of good shepherding is shown us all through His life. Peter and John in the first reading of today, show us how loving we should do our own part of the good shepherding. Like them, we can, as Christians, risk our lives for the sake of love for our sheep. Finally, there is an interweaving of shepherding. How well we do our share of shepherding is what matters. It is through our verbal and non-verbal ways that the Good Shepherd’s voice is heeded, that the Good News will lead His flock to everlasting life.
Since as Christians, we are each other’s shepherd, we are called to lay down our lives for one another in our daily actions, the way Jesus did for us. This is the best way to live for Jesus. When we stray, mislead each other we should come back and be accepted, mended with care and love. The love which God lavished on us as we hear in the second reading. Love we would otherwise not deserve, but because, we are His, He extends it to us.
A Little Prayer.
Lord Jesus, my good Shepherd, thank you for keeping watch over my life. Help me to be attentive, recognise your voice and submit my thoughts and actions to your wise guidance. May I find peace and joy in your presence all the days of my life as I strive to shepherd those You have given me to guide. Amen.
Have a Blessed Week!
Bobe Talla Toh.
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