OMELIE / Omelie EN

26/6/2016

07/05/2017 - 4th Sunday of Easter- A

07/05/2017 -  4th Sunday of Easter- A

Prayer for vocations

1st reading  Acts 2,14.36-41 * from Psalm  22 * 2^nd reading 1Pt 2,20-25 * Gospel John 10,1-10

The day of Pentecoste Peter answers to the people who came to see what happened and who are asking "What should we do?". First of all, the apostle says, bluntly: "Repent". We cannot let go this word as it is such an important one. John the Baptist did spoke this way and also Jesus, in his first announcement, kept on using this word. It is always an alive invitation. We also need to convert, to change our way of thinking and reasoning. In fact, every day we are influenced by the acting and thinking of the world, which can easily germinate in us. The world act as if God would not exist, or at least as if God would not be our Father, the one who spoke to us through the Son! Understanding our God and his love, to live with him and enjoy his presence and his work, requires a change we can never realize in its whole, in addition to the fact that we are not even able to be perseverant. "Repent," and the apostle continues with the invitation to be "baptized in the name of Jesus Christ" in order to obtain the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. I wonder: what does it mean to me to convert ? Peter wants to invite me to highlight Jesus, his death and resurrection for he lives next to and through me. It is Him who saved me, and continues to save me "from this corrupt generation." It is Jesus who pulls me away from the ways of being and acting which are based on the vices of egoism, envy and greed, practiced by our contemporaries. It is Him who wants us to be careful to each other, patient, comforters of our Brothers, meek and simple, eager to extend to all some aspects of our Father’s Love. " Repent" is an invitation to dominate or control the instincts that we have learned to satisfy even knowing we do hurt others.
“Repent”: I do thank Saint Peter who is still ordering this to me. "Repent": To convert is like tilling the field to sow the good seed. After the incitement “repent” there is the another indication of being "baptized in the name of Jesus" by accepting His Word: If I do not do this, I struggled in vain to convert me, the same as are struggling in vain the ones who, after tilled the land, do not sow it ! Even in his letter, the apostle of the keys repeats with other words the same exhortation. The Christian is the one who bears "patiently suffering." The Christian does not reject the cross, as he is following Jesus, and he does follow Him exactly carrying his own cross. He follows Him on his footsteps "reviled, did not revile, mistreated, he did not threaten; but he trusted to him who judges justly." The Christian is a lamb who follows and loves the sacrificial lamb. The Lamb is the "shepherd and guardian of your souls." It is Him who defends us, gathers us, nourishes us. To him we rely with confidence, we learn from him, from his example and his teaching. It was Him saying: "I am sending you like lambs among wolves" He knows that in the world there are dangers and difficulties, misunderstandings and persecution for His friends. He knows this and He offers himself as a shepherd to guide them and protect them, and as a lamb to be their example. If we were to defend us using our weapons and forces, we would use the violence, which is the weapon of the enemy, the devil, and we would be back to the world. So we were, until we "were brought back to the shepherd and guardian of your souls."

It is precisely on this image of the shepherd Jesus stops to be known from His disciples, from us. He is the shepherd that the sheep can trust, who can rely on, because they know his friendly voice. From His voice they do not escape, as they would do from a the stranger's voice. Out of metaphor, we can trust Jesus, listening to every Word of His with joy, because it is a Word which guarantees safety and security. The Lord uses another similarity: "I am the door of the sheep." Who comes to us through Jesus steps into the door, opened by the guardian: the sheep should not be afraid of him, he is neither a thief nor a robber. This statement is for the sheep, for their discernment: they can trust those who gets near to them with Jesus. It is also for the shepherds: to be true shepherds, it means to be linked to Jesus and do not do anything without Him: they will get near to the sheep as going through Jesus, using his Word, living with His Spirit. Today we pray just for this: we pray to the Father so that He can send laborers into his harvest, send holy pastors, linked to Jesus. It is the Sunday called " of the Good Shepherd", and we get near to Him asking to keep on donating to our Church, which is His Church, priests and people consecrated to Him, who will be worthy of Him. Jesus only ask to us to pray for this, because choosing the pastors of the Church is his duty. Our steady commitment is keeping alive, through the pray, the desire of Him in the whole Church.