RBWords

SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2014 FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

[Acts 2:14a, 36-41; 1 Peter 2:20b-25; John 10:1-10]

 

     Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep.  All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.  I am the gate.  Whoever enters through me will be saved, ad will come in and go out and find pasture.  A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;  I cam so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.  [John]

 

     Catholic tradition names this Sunday as "Good Shepherd Sunday."  On this Sunday in all three "cycles" a portion of the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John is proclaimed.  So, I recommend to the Beloved Congregation that you get out your New Testament and read the whole chapter so that the portion for today makes more sense.  The image is a rich and challenging one.  There are at least three important elements:  the shepherd, the gate and the voice!

 

     Jesus refers to himself both as shepherd and as gate.  The relationship would make more sense to his audience than to us who are very likely not in the sheepherding vocation.  The Palestinian shepherds from a given village would keep all their sheep in a common corral with one gate.  Each shepherd has a particular "call" that only his sheep would respond to.  Every morning the shepherd comes, gives his call, and his sheep separate themselves from the larger group and follow him.  The security of the group at night depends on the gate and often a shepherd would spend the night at the gate to defend against robbers and predators.

 

     The image projects the values of care, protection and truth.  The shepherd cares for the sheep.  The gate is the secure way of protection.  The voice is the unique call that the sheep who belong to the shepherd will recognize.  Although Christian tradition somewhat "sentimentalizes" this image in stained glass and other pictorial ways, the text points out that Jesus was aiming at the religious leadership of his time.  The chapter is a critique!  It ends with rocks flying!  The leadership find themselves called "hirelings, wolves, thieves!" 

 

      Pope Francis has called for shepherds who have "the smell of the sheep!"  I suspect more than one bishop or pastor will need to change their way of leading before too long!  AMEN