REFLECTION
Fourth Sunday of Easter – 3 May 2020
First reading
Acts 2:14,36-41 – ‘God has made him both Lord and Christ’
ON the day of Pentecost Peter stood up with the Eleven and addressed the crowd in a loud voice: ‘The whole House of Israel can be certain that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.’
Hearing this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the apostles, ‘What must we do, brothers?’
‘You must repent,’ Peter answered ‘and every one of you must be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
‘The promise that was made is for you and your children, and for all those who are far away, for all those whom the Lord our God will call to himself.’ He spoke to them for a long time using many arguments, and he urged them, ‘Save yourselves from this perverse generation.’
They were convinced by his arguments, and they accepted what he said and were baptised. That very day about three thousand were added to their number.
Second reading
1 Peter 2:20-25 – You have come back to the shepherd of your souls
THE merit, in the sight of God, is in bearing punishment patiently when you are punished after doing your duty.
This, in fact, is what you were called to do, because Christ suffered for you and left an example for you to follow the way he took. He had not done anything wrong, and there had been no perjury in his mouth.
He was insulted and did not retaliate with insults; when he was tortured he made no threats but he put his trust in the righteous judge.
He was bearing our faults in his own body on the cross, so that we might die to our faults and live for holiness; through his wounds you have been healed.
You had gone astray like sheep but now you have come back to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
Gospel
John 10:1-10 – I am the gate of the sheepfold
JESUS said: ‘I tell you most solemnly, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but gets in some other way is a thief and a brigand.
The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock; the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out. When he has brought out his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice. They never follow a stranger but run away from him: they do not recognise the voice of strangers.’
Jesus told them this parable but they failed to understand what he meant by telling it to them.
So Jesus spoke to them again:
‘I tell you most solemnly, I am the gate of the sheepfold. All others who have come are thieves and brigands; but the sheep took no notice of them.
‘I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe: he will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pasture.
‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.’
REFLECTION
TODAY is “Good Shepherd Sunday” and “Vocation Sunday”. The Lord, who suffered/died/Risen, is the Good Shepherd for He has come to bear the sins of His flock, given His life for them, so that they may have life and have it to the full.
The ultimate definition of a GOOD Shepherd is that He gives His own life that His sheep may have life.
Every disciple of Christ the Good Shepherd is called to be a sheep of His flock.
In this increasingly selfish world, it is more and more noticed that many people these days, even professionals, lack that devotion, dedication, and spirit of sacrifice in their profession and work.
Some, however, are also called to shepherd and lead the flocks in the Church. And nearly all are called to lead others in the way of God in different fields of human life.
Every Christian is, therefore, called to imitate Jesus the Good Shepherd, each in his particular station and situation in life.
Although special attention is given to promote and pray for priestly and religious vocations today (since priests and religious serve the whole church), the call to serve like the Good Shepherd is made to all Christians.
We will reflect on the priestly and religious vocation, but it is also relevant and useful for every Christian called to imitate the Good Shepherd.
In this increasingly selfish world, it is more and more noticed that many people these days, even professionals, lack that devotion, dedication, and spirit of sacrifice in their profession and work.
Many work just to “cari makan”, not to serve responsibly in order to improve the life of those whom they serve. This impersonal, heartless, and just-going-through-the-motion to have works done is summed up by “no sense of vocation” which inevitably leads to “no sense of mission”, no love, no care, no real purpose.
Our Creator knows every unique human person even before he is formed in the womb. He has chosen each to exist and live for a purpose, His purpose. Anyone who rejects this God-given purpose will, knowingly or unknowingly, lack wholeness and happiness in life. No one is made without a purpose, because everyone is made by God who is love for His loving purpose.
Our Creator is also a living God who speaks. If the Word and Call of God is not heard, and there is such extreme lack of vocations in response, it is not because the ever-living God is dumb or dead, but because we have become distracted and incapable of listening.
We really need to pray earnestly and do what we can so that the whole Christian people, especially parents of young people, become capable of listening to God and teach others to listen to God’s call. This is a tall order given the generally poor level of spiritual and religious life.
God calls each person to the purpose for which He has made him. In the Church, “Vocation” is a simple Latin word which means “Calling”, or “Call”. Priests and religious like many other people feel inwardly and irresistibly “called” by the living God to dedicate their life for the service of others in the Church.
Every vocation is holy, for it comes from the Holy God who calls. When God calls someone, He is choosing him/her to become holy by living and serving as priests and religious, just as a warden on a smaller scale, is called to be holy by serving as one during Mass.
When God calls, He always provides the person He calls with the appropriate grace to live His call faithfully. Our God is not one who calls and deserts.
Jesus’ parable of the Good Shepherd today displays the clear marks of the good shepherd.
First, the good shepherd is the TRUE Shepherd because it is God Himself who has called, authorized, and sent him to the sheepfold. Indeed, God the Gatekeeper opens the front gate and lets him in.
He enters humbly, confidently, happily, and openly. He belongs. The thief on the other hand sneaks into the sheepfold through some back ways and he will be sneaky with the sheep all his life. It’s easy to see who belongs and does not belong.
Since no one can be a priest unless God calls him, one cannot really say: ‘I want to be a priest’. He can only say humbly, often painfully, ‘God has called’. Hence “vocation” in the Church always means a direct Calling from God.
The sheer secularization, the spiritual condition of society and the Christian families, all are sending red signals, and the lack of vocations is the clearest.
People who has learned to pray and have known God can discern and know clearly when God calls. Those who can never make up their mind if God has called or not do not know God enough and should not be priests. For if they do, how are they to lead the flock to a God they don’t know?
Some seminarians and priests will swear that they know God has definitely called them when obviously God has not, by the sheer and conspicuous incompatibility of their unchristian character and behaviour.
Worldly and selfish motives are obvious: to use and abuse the priesthood as a means to usurp material security, status, power and prestige. These have called themselves to be priests; God has not.
Once the good shepherd has entered, the sheep hear him and are comfortable and are reassured. He calls the sheep one by one and leads them out. When he has brought out his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice.
These marks of the good shepherds are clearly visible in real life, whether they concern priests, religious or lay leaders in the Church. Good shepherds know their sheep’s strengths and weaknesses deeply with appreciation and compassion, and are respected sincerely and followed confidently and trustingly.
Authority, the authority of God is at play in the community, not power. The terrible opposite is true where there are bad shepherds and thieves.
Another clear mark of the good shepherd is his wisdom and especially his courage to go ahead and lead the flock in the name of God who has sent him to lead His people.
There are always ravenous wolves around. The thief is usually a crowd-pleaser playing safe and abusing the lofty name of democracy, follow the flock whose role is actually basically to follow. The flock in Church ends up divided, often bitterly in conflict, moving in conflicting directions.
The Catholic Church will also need priests and religious, good priests and religious, not any priests and religious. Today on Good Shepherd and Vocation Sunday, we need to acknowledge our sin of being so barren of vocations. Something is wrong, though sometimes we think we don’t know.
The sheer secularization, the spiritual condition of society and the Christian families, all are sending red signals, and the lack of vocations is the clearest. Things are desperately wrong.
Let’s spend a longer time prayerfully today, reflecting on our sin, our barrenness of quality vocations, and pray for conversion and beg the Lord to send more labourers into His vineyard.
This is the basic. It’s absolutely impossible without God no matter what fishing strategies we may have to promote vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
Cover Image: Stained glass: Alfred Handel, d. 1946, photo:Toby Hudson
Quote Image: 19th century by German Artist Bernard Plockhorst
St Simon Catholic Church Likas 